Election is not just a number game or the battle of ballots. It is also the time for innovation of ideas, finding new means to communicate with people and new ways of mobilising public support. Catchy slogans, jingles, handouts, colourful banners etc were something that used to draw the attention of the people in the past. But now these have been replaced with campaign songs and short films.
Using evergreen film songs is not a thing of the Dravidian parties anymore. Starting with songs written about the party candidate to candidate himself singing those songs, both national and regional parties have come forward with their own innovation to set a trend in this election season.
Latest to this addition is the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), which has come up with a catchy song on their candidate, perhaps for the first time in the history of elections here. The sitting MP Abdul Rahman (IUML) is contesting for the second time from Vellore and his party has come up with the song on him, sung in Tamil by an Islamic singer Seeni Mohamed.
“We have produced songs about the party ideologies and leaders before, but this is the first time we have written one about the candidate,” Kayal Mahaboob, State secretary of the IUML, said.
Enni paarthiduveer, Enn chinnathil vaakkalippeer goes the eight-minute-long song which also highlights the poll promises of the candidate. “People listened to this song with rapt attention and whatever we want to convey to them, we get to do it through it in a simple, entertaining way,” Abdul Rahman said.
“Music was used as a mainstream campaign tool during the freedom movement when musicians used to create songs that instilled patriotism in the minds of the people. Bharathi’s songs were extensively used in TN to mobilise people for the freedom fight. After Independence, the DMK took the lead to make songs during the elections,” octogenarian Somasundaram said, adding, “When MGR took over, the music campaign took a step further to add dance sequences. Music has the magic of capturing people’s attention and that’s why more and more parties are coming forward to use this as a tool to win over voters.”