This time round, as electioneering for the first Aizawl Municipal Council is reaching its climax, candidates and their supporters are busy sending text messages to the voters, besides speaking on a common platform organised by church organisation in each ward.
''I receive such messages from political parties appealing to me to vote for their party candidates four to five times on a daily basis,'' a resident of Chanmari here said.
'Vote for candidates who could work shoulder to shoulder with the state government' is the main slogan of the ruling Congress party and its ally Lalduhoma-led Zoram Nationalist Party.
The Congress-ZNP alliance had warned the people of Aizawl against electing candidates who 'would turn their back' on the ruling party.
On the other hand, Opposition Mizo National Front-Mizoram People's Conference combine has been asking the elect councillors from Opposition party to check the government.
They claimed that the municipal council would get direct fund from the Centre and there would be no way the state government tie the hands of the Opposition councillors.
These two contrasting slogans are what the people of Aizawl keep receiving on their mobile phones.
Since the last state Assembly elections in 2008, the Mizoram People's Forum (MPF), a Presbyterian Church-sponsored election watchdog, has forced political parties and candidates to refrain from door-to-door campaigning and to take alternative routes to woo voters.
Candidates for the 19-ward AMC polls, to be held on November 3, are now declaring their manifesto via SMSes and the common platform.
A candidate said he had been using text messages to ask voters within his ward to vote for him as he was not allowed to personally meet them in their homes by the MPF.
The MPF has also fixed the number of banners and posters to be displayed by a candidate within his ward and also the number of copies of the pamphlets and appeals 'to cut down election expenditure'.
SMS service providers like Aizawl-based Zolife Mobcom services are doing lucrative business with major political parties, especially the ruling Congress and the Opposition Mizo National Front (MNF), paying for their service to reach the voters.
''We are sending around seven lakh SMSes in a week now and we hope that it would be picking up soon,'' Remruata Varte of the Mobcom sms service said, adding, ''We will launch voicemail messages within a few days.'' The State Election Commission is, meanwhile, keenly watching if the SMS campaigning goes beyond the law.
In an official statement, the State Election Commission said the misuse would be penalised under provisions of the IPC, Representation of the People Act, 1951, Mizoram Municipalities (Election of Councillors) Rules, 2007 and the Conduct of Election Rules, 1961.
''It has been brought to the notice of the Commission that certain objectionable SMSes are being transmitted by some persons, violating the provisions of election laws and the model code of conduct.'' ''Any violation of the election laws and the model code of conduct should be reported to the police and the police would take action in accordance with the law,'' the statement said.
Expenses on bulk SMSes sent by service providers would be included in the election expenditure of the candidates, the Commission said, adding that transmission of bulk text messages of political nature for a period of 48 hours before the end of the election process of the civic polls was strictly prohibited.