# Voter calling software in Telugu: a campaign team's guide

> Voter calling software in Telugu lets a candidate's team ring volunteers, booth workers and consenting voters in natural Telugu, then write down what each person said. Use it for volunteer duty calls, grievance call-backs and pre-poll reminders. Follow the Election Commission's rules: stop campaign calls in the 48-hour silence period, get scripts pre-certified by the MCMC where needed, count the cost as election expenditure and never call DND numbers without consent.

Source: https://agents.elevatebox.in/blog/voter-calling-software-telugu  
Updated: 2026-10-15

## What a campaign actually uses phone calls for

Ask any constituency office in Andhra Pradesh or Telangana during election season and they will tell you the phone never stops. Booth in-charges need to confirm who is covering which polling station. Volunteers need to be told where to report. Residents who complained about a broken drain at the last meeting want to know if anyone noted it down.

Most of this work is not persuasion at all. It is coordination and follow-up, done in Telugu, at scale, in a few busy weeks. That is where an AI caller helps. It does not replace the candidate, the speeches or the door-to-door work. It takes the repeat calls off the war room so people can do the things only people can do.

This post is neutral. It does not matter which party you work for. The rules and the method are the same for everyone.

## Three calls that work well in Telugu

### 1. Volunteer and booth duty calls

Say you have 1,200 booth workers across 240 polling stations. A week before polling, someone has to confirm each one is available, knows their booth number and has the right ID. A team of five people takes three or four days for this. An AI employee can call the whole list in an afternoon, with retries for anyone who does not pick up.

A sample opening: "Namaskaram Ravi garu, nenu campaign office nunchi AI assistant ni. Mee booth duty confirm cheyyadaniki call chesanu." (Hello Ravi sir, I am the AI assistant from the campaign office. I am calling to confirm your booth duty.) It then asks if they are available on the day, which booth they are covering and whether they need anything. Anyone who says no is flagged for the coordinator to replace.

### 2. Grievance call-backs

During a padayatra or ward meeting, people give their phone numbers along with a complaint: water supply, street lights, a pension that stopped. They gave that number to be called back. The AI employee rings each one, reads back the complaint, asks if it is still a problem and notes any new detail. Office staff then get a clean list sorted by ward and issue type.

### 3. Reminders before the silence period

Supporters who signed up for updates can get a short reminder of the polling date and how to find their polling station. Schedule these to finish well before the 48-hour silence period starts. Do not plan any campaign calling for the last two days.

## The rules first: Election Commission and telecom

Political calling is closely watched. Get these right before a single call goes out, and when in doubt, ask your election agent or the district election office.

- **48-hour silence period.** Campaigning, including calls asking for votes, stops 48 hours before the close of polling in that constituency. Plan all voter-facing calls to end before it starts.
- **MCMC pre-certification.** Paid political advertisements on electronic media need pre-certification from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee. Scripted or recorded campaign messages sent to phones in bulk can fall under this, so get the script certified before you start.
- **Election expenditure.** What you spend on calling is campaign spending. Record it in the candidate's expenditure account, and keep the wallet top-up invoices for it.
- **Model Code of Conduct.** No appeals on caste or religion, no promises of money or gifts, nothing that attacks a person's private life. The same rules apply on a phone call as on a stage.
- **Consent and DND.** Call people who gave you their number for this purpose: party members, volunteers, people who signed up at a meeting. Do not buy voter phone lists and do not call numbers on the DND register without consent.

ElevateBox checks your do-not-call list, consent records and calling hours before every call, so a number marked off-limits is never dialled. You can read how that works in [do-not-call and consent](https://agents.elevatebox.in/help/do-not-call-and-consent), and the general telecom rules in our [TRAI and DLT guide](https://agents.elevatebox.in/guides/ai-calling-rules-india-trai-dlt).

## What gets written down after each call

Every call ends with a recording, a transcript and a short summary. You also choose the fields you want filled in. For booth duty calls that might be:

- Available on polling day: yes, no or not sure
- Booth number confirmed
- Needs transport or food arranged
- Wants to talk to the coordinator

For grievance calls: ward, issue type, still pending or solved, and any new detail. The war room filters by these fields instead of reading notes. If you are running a survey rather than follow-ups, see our post on [constituency survey phone calls](https://agents.elevatebox.in/blog/constituency-survey-phone-calls).

## What it costs, in rupees

Calling is billed by the second at ₹7.98 a minute, and unanswered calls are not charged. Here is a worked example, assuming an average answered call of one and a half minutes.

| Calling job | People called | Talk time (approx.) | Talk-time cost |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Booth duty confirmation | 1,200 | 1,800 minutes | ₹14,364 |
| Grievance call-backs | 3,000 | 4,500 minutes | ₹35,910 |
| Supporter reminders | 10,000 | 15,000 minutes | ₹1,19,700 |

These are illustrative numbers, not a quote. GST is added at checkout, and bigger recharges bring the rate down. Remember to put the full amount, with GST, in the expenditure account. You can model your own numbers with the [AI calling cost calculator](https://agents.elevatebox.in/tools/ai-calling-cost-calculator).

## Setting it up in one day

1. Describe the job in plain words: "Call our booth workers in Telugu, confirm their booth number and polling-day availability, and note anything they need." The AI employee is built from that brief.
2. Add the fields you want filled in and the line it should use to hand over to a coordinator.
3. Upload the volunteer list as a sheet, with booth number and ward in their own columns so the AI employee can use them by name.
4. Make a test call to your own phone and listen as a volunteer would. Change anything that sounds stiff.
5. Start with one mandal or ward, read the results the same evening, then run the rest.

The grievance and reminder jobs are separate employees with their own short briefs. Keeping each job narrow is what keeps the calls short and the notes clean.

## Where a human must stay in charge

An AI caller is good at repeat, structured calls. It should not argue politics, respond to accusations or make promises on the candidate's behalf. Set it to say "Ee vishayam coordinator garu matladataru" (the coordinator will speak to you about this) whenever a caller gets angry, raises a sensitive topic or asks for something only a person can give.

- Keep the script short and factual. No claims about rivals.
- Say clearly at the start that it is an AI assistant calling from the campaign office.
- Have one named person review the first 50 recordings before scaling up.
- Keep a stop date in the calendar for the silence period, and pause every campaign on that date.

> Want to hear how it sounds in Telugu before you commit? New accounts get ₹50 of calls free. See [how it works](https://agents.elevatebox.in/how-it-works) and try a test call on your own phone.

## Frequently asked questions

### Can an AI caller make election calls in Telugu?

Yes. ElevateBox calls in natural Telugu, Hindi and English, including the Telugu-English mix most people speak. It suits volunteer duty calls, grievance call-backs and reminders to supporters who gave consent, as long as the Election Commission's rules are followed.

### Are campaign calls allowed during the 48-hour silence period?

No. Campaigning, including calls that ask for votes, has to stop 48 hours before the close of polling in that constituency. Schedule every voter-facing campaign to finish before the silence period begins, and pause it in the dashboard as a backup.

### Do election phone calls need MCMC pre-certification?

Paid political advertisements on electronic media need pre-certification from the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee, and bulk scripted messages to phones can fall under that. Get your call script certified before starting, and check with the district MCMC if you are unsure.

### Does the cost of voter calls count as election expenditure?

Yes. Money spent on calling for a candidate is campaign spending and must be shown in the candidate's expenditure account. Keep the wallet recharge invoices, which include GST, as the supporting record.

### Can I call voter numbers from a list I bought?

Do not. Bought lists have no consent, and many numbers will be on the DND register. Call party members, volunteers and people who gave you their number for updates, and keep a record of where each number came from.