E-Paper
Election Commission signs up Newton movie’s Rajkummar Rao as its national icon
The ECI appoints prominent personalities as ‘national icons’ to motivate voters, and counter apathy from the youth and urban dwellers who prefer staying at home instead of casting votes
The Election Commission of India on Thursday appointed actor Rajkummar Rao as one of their ‘National Icons’ ahead of five assembly elections this year, and the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The ECI’s move comes in the backdrop of the actor’s iconic role from a few years ago when he played a government employee on election duty in the movie ‘Newton’.
In the movie, Rao’s character as a polling booth official in a Chhattisgarh town tries hard to conduct free and fair elections despite various obstacles, including threats from Naxals.
Chief Election Commissioner Rajiv Kumar and election commissioners Anup Chandra Pandey and Arun Goel exchanged a memorandum of understanding with Rao in New Delhi during the event.
Two-phased elections to the Chhattisgarh assembly will be held on November 7 and 17, while the results will be announced on December 3. The other states heading for polls next month are Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Mizoram.
The ECI appoints prominent personalities as ‘national icons’ to motivate voters, and counter apathy from the youth and urban dwellers who prefer staying at home instead of casting votes.
Other such ‘national icons’ are former Indian cricket captain MS Dhoni, singer Jasbir Jassi, Padma Shri Dr Niru Kumar and actor Aamir Khan. The ECI also appoints ‘state icons’, such as actor Pankaj Tripathi for Bihar and Padma Vibhushan Dr Anil Kakodkar for Maharashtra.
Rajkummar Rao received a Filmfare Award and a National Film Award for his role in the 2017 movie ‘Newton’, which was also India’s official entry at the 90th Academy Awards (the Oscars) in the ‘Best Foreign Language Film’ category.
