Mao Tse-Tung once said, “Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.” Ofcourse he said that decades before text messaging became so popular. Today’s savvy revolutionary is putting his or her thumbs at risk by text messaging thousands of voters to turnout and cast a ballot in Nepal’s April 10 elections.

To get around the government’s ban on putting up posters, banners and slogans in public places, former Maoist guerrillas are sending text messages to potential voters that would make Carl Marx proud.

“A new thinking and leadership for a new Nepal… Give Maoists a chance this time,” read a text message bearing the Maoist hammer and sickle sign at the top.

This will be Nepal’s first national vote in nine years. A special assembly is being elected that will work on a new constitution and most likely abolish the 240-year-old Hindu monarchy.

Maoist activist Deep Sikha said he had already sent about 5,000 text messages to prospective voters requesting for their support for his party.

“SMS are being sent to voters by other members throughout the country,” Sikha said

While communist revolutionaries might seem like a quaint anachronism to some, Nepal’s Maoists fought a ten year civil war that killed over 13,000 people. “Politics is war without bloodshed while war is politics with bloodshed,” Mao Tse-Tung.