Amid the heat and dust of the poll season, Kalimpong has linked elections with tourism with an innovative photography contest.

The district administration of this hill district is encouraging voters to click pictures of hidden tourism gems of Kalimpong — holding their voter ID card — and submit the photographs to officials. Pictures, which can be selfies or clicked by someone else, if selected, will be publicised by the district in tourism-related advertisements and brochures.

The competition is part of Systematic Voters’ Education and Electoral Participation (SVEEP) initiative that the Election Commission of India started in 2009. The flagship programme is aimed at promoting and spreading voter awareness.

“We are encouraging residents to take photographs holding voter cards amid the beautiful landscape of the district and submit the same to us. We feel this is a chance to showcase the hidden treasures of Kalimpong to the world,” said Kalimpong district magistrate Vimala R.

Residents can submit their entries till March 15 and the best three submissions will get cash awards of Rs 10,000, Rs 5,000 and Rs 3,000.

This hill district has in many ways been under the shadow of its more famous neighbours Darjeeling and Sikkim. However, Kalimpong is coming of age.

“Kalimpong district has the maximum number of registered homestays in Bengal,” said district magistrate Vimala.

There are 337 registered homestays in Kalimpong, way ahead of South 24 Parganas’s 78 and Darjeeling’s 63, which come second and third place on the list of Bengal districts with registered homestays.

No wonder the Kalimpong administration is keen to get the momentum going.

On the photography contest, Vimala said: “We decided on this concept as we felt that most youngsters have mobile phones and they love photography. This way we are looking at promoting both voter awareness among the young and tourism.”

Residents are being encouraged to click in any spot they feel “is the most beautiful spot or depicts Kalimpong perfectly”. The plan, district official say, is to create “a distinct and unique” brand for Kalimpong tourism.

“We are trying to work on creating our own identity,” the district magistrate said.

In the coming days, plans are also afoot to start a similar campaign under SVEEP to highlight river rafting and paragliding in Kalimpong.