BMC polls 2017: Citizen group launches #DidYouKnow Twitter campaign against political parties’ claims

In a fitting reply to political parties' campaign for the civic polls, a citizen group has initiated a #DidYouKnow? series on Twitter to change and challenge the

In a fitting reply to political parties' campaign for the civic polls, a citizen group has initiated a #DidYouKnow? series on Twitter to change and challenge the electoral narrative on multifarious civic issues.

An infographic by Free A Billion shows how rich the BMC is.

Free A Billion, a citizen group, has been running a counter campaign to expose political parties, including the Shiv Sena, Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP).

For instance, as a retort to Sena's posters on starting virtual classrooms in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) schools, the group tweeted with a visual attachment how enrollment in civic schools has dropped by 45% owing to lack of sanitation facilities.

The Sena’s poll campaign tagline is also ‘Did You Know?’. However, parties like Congress and NCP, had already started counter campaigns against Sena.

Punning on the Sena’s tagline, the NCP’s BMC poll campaign punch line is ‘You Should Know’.

Saurabh Modi from Free A Billion said their campaign is aimed at all parties for providing an incomplete picture of civic issues. “The Congress talks about the tablet scam as a rejoinder to Sena's claims on virtual classrooms, which is again not the right way to look at amenities,” said Modi.

The group has also found faults with the BMC's budget.

Its tweet along with an infographic reads, “The budget of #BMC is equal to the budget of 10 other big cities of India #DidYouKnow? There is so much more that can be done with the 37,000 crore.”

On Sena's advertisement on constructing the ninth fastest dam in the world, the group has questioned how many Mumbaiikars still do not have access to clean water.

A newly formed citizen group, Free A Billion has been asking people to opt for None of The Above (NOTA) option this civic election.

The election to be held on February 21 will be the first civic election in Mumbai where citizens can also opt for the NOTA.

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