Bulk SMS Services for Election Campaigns
Promotional-route bulk SMS for election campaigns. Delivery depends on valid recipient numbers, applicable permissions and preferences, approved content, network conditions and provider checks.
Read This First
Election SMS Must Use the Promotional Route — Not Transactional
TRAI classifies SMS routes by the type of content being sent, not by who is sending it. Using the wrong category can lead to template rejection or header suspension.
Promotional Route — Permitted
Election campaign messages — candidate announcements, rally invites, vote reminders — are classified as promotional content. This route respects the DND (Do Not Disturb) registry and delivers only between 9 AM and 9 PM, as TRAI requires for all promotional traffic.
Transactional Route — Not Permitted
This route is reserved for genuine account-related content — OTPs, payment confirmations, service alerts — and is not blocked by promotional DND preferences for that purpose. Using it for campaign or promotional messaging misuses its approved purpose under TRAI rules.
Election campaign SMS must be sent via the Promotional route, which filters out DND-registered numbers and delivers between 9 AM and 9 PM per TRAI regulations. The Transactional route cannot legally be used for campaign messaging — it is reserved for account-related content like OTPs and order confirmations.
DLT Registration Is Not the Only Approval Required
DLT registration confirms that a header and content template are registered for carriage on the telecom network. It does not clear political advertising. Election campaign SMS content may also require pre-certification by the Media Certification and Monitoring Committee (MCMC) under Election Commission of India instructions. Obtaining any required clearance is the sending entity's responsibility; MetaReach provides the sending technology.
See our Election Communication Compliance Guide for MCMC pre-certification, the silence period and the separate telecom requirements for SMS, voice and IVR.
Before You Start
Who Can Use This Service and What You Need
Election bulk SMS is for authorized senders only. Before the first send, a campaign needs the following in place.
An Authorized Sender
A registered political party, a candidate, or an agency acting on their written authorization. The sending entity must be the one registered on DLT.
DLT Entity, Header & Templates
A DLT Principal Entity registration, an approved sender header, and a promotional template for each message. We help prepare and submit these.
Election Commission Clearance
Where ECI rules require it, MCMC pre-certification of the message content, obtained by the campaign before sending.
A Lawfully Sourced Contact List
Numbers the campaign is entitled to contact, with a record of how each was collected. Promotional SMS is subject to the recipient's DND preferences.
SMS is one of several channels a campaign can use alongside recorded voice calls, IVR and missed call numbers. The election communication overview compares them, and the SMS and voice compliance guide explains each check in detail.
How It Works
Onboarding, Billing and Delivery Limits
Onboarding Steps
1. Confirm the sending entity and its authorisation. 2. Register or link the DLT entity, header and promotional content templates. 3. Upload a contact list the entity is entitled to contact. 4. Obtain any MCMC clearance the content needs. 5. Test-send, then schedule within the permitted window.
Billing Unit: the SMS Credit
Each SMS segment uses one credit. English (GSM-7) text fits 160 characters in a single segment and 153 per segment when longer; Unicode text fits 70 and 67. Rates follow the published volume slabs on the pricing page, GST extra. See election SMS examples for how final text changes the count.
Consent and Preferences
Promotional SMS respects the recipient's DND preferences and the 9 AM–9 PM window. The sending entity is responsible for how its contact list was collected and for honouring opt-out requests.
What a Delivery Report Shows
Delivery depends on valid recipient numbers, applicable permissions and preferences, approved content, network conditions and provider checks. A delivery report shows the status returned by the network; it does not establish that a message was read.
Use Cases
What Election Campaigns Use Bulk SMS For
Common tasks during an election campaign. Each message still needs its own registered template and any required clearance.
Candidate Announcements
Introduce a candidacy, share a manifesto link, or announce a campaign launch to the contacts the campaign is entitled to message.
Rally & Event Invites
Send date, time, and venue details for public meetings and rallies, with reminders as the event approaches.
Thank-You Messages
Follow up after an event or interaction with a short thank-you note — a low-cost way to maintain goodwill through a long campaign.
Polling-Date Information
Share the polling date and booth details before the 48-hour silence period begins. Check the applicable election instructions before scheduling anything near polling.
Regional-Language Support
Unicode SMS for Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada and other regional languages. Unicode uses more credits per message than English text.
Delivery Reports
Sent, delivered and failed statuses as returned by the network. A delivered status does not mean the message was read.
Illustrative Only
Example Message
One illustrative example. It is not an approved template; more examples, and how encoding and variables change the credit count, are on the election SMS examples page.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Campaign content is promotional, and promotional SMS is subject to the recipient's DND preferences and the 9 AM–9 PM window. The transactional and service categories are for genuine non-promotional content and cannot be used to send campaign messages.
The sending entity needs a DLT Principal Entity registration, a registered header (sender ID) of up to 11 alphanumeric characters under the DLT platform's current format, and a registered content template for each message. MetaReach assists with this registration. DLT registration does not clear political advertising; any MCMC pre-certification is a separate check.
Each SMS segment uses one credit. English (GSM-7) text fits 160 characters in one segment and 153 per segment when longer; Unicode text fits 70 and 67. Rates follow the published volume slabs on the pricing page, with GST extra.
No. Delivery depends on valid recipient numbers, applicable permissions and preferences, approved content, network conditions and provider checks. A delivery report shows the status returned by the network; it does not establish that a message was read.
Yes. Unicode SMS supports Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada and other Indian languages. Unicode messages hold fewer characters per segment, so the same message usually uses more credits than in English.
