Thinking of a wedding gift? Vote for a favourite neta instead

Wedding cards are now requesting guests to vote for the favourite neta of the couple in the general elections, as the wedding gift.

Wedding gifts are changing and how! The Great Indian Wedding has gone a step ahead of gift cards or wedding registries, instead showing its political hues with the choice of gifts. Wedding invites are asking guests to ‘gift’ their vote — to a favourite politician — in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Wedding cards with a message to vote for PM Modi in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

For instance, an admirer of Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati is requesting people to vote for her. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s fans in Surat, Delhi-NCR and Karnataka are also displaying their political preferences on their invites. A message on these invites read: ‘Please make Modi ji win in 2019 Loksabha elections for the development of the country’ and ‘Our gift is your vote to Modi in 2019’.

Rajpal Soni, whose son Mohit is getting married today, says he wants to spread “awareness” about how “good Modiji is”. “He is a corruption-free leader but there are people who don’t want him to come back. So, we thought of requesting people to make him PM again, through our wedding card. We have distributed cards to around 1,000 people and hope that they will vote for him,” says Soni.

Some people also like to print a picture of Babasaheb Ambedkar or other political leaders on wedding cards.

How did he get the idea? “I received a wedding card on Whatsapp which had a similar message. I decided to follow it,” says Soni, adding, “A lot of people who received the card told me they liked the idea and they will vote. Two even said they might get a similar message printed on cards for weddings in their families.”

Harinder Singh Chauhan, owner of New Kajal Printographics, Ghaziabad, confirms the trend: “I would say having pictures of deities is out of fashion. People are asking to print pictures of Babasaheb Ambedkar or other political leaders on wedding cards. A client also asked for Akhilesh Yadav’s pics.”

However, not everyone is comfortable with wedding cards reflecting their political choices. A Delhiite getting married next month says, “I wanted to put a similar message on my card, but my parents didn’t agree. Isn’t it a wonderful way to influence people and get something meaningful than those ‘pass it ahead’ gifts?” 

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