CUTTACK: ‘Damra kau rabi dela re, kau kau... kau kau Congress hata bahi dela re, rau rau...rau rau’ ‘Arre re mo Hurushi bhai, Sankha chinhare hoichu thia’ At first, they certainly are mistaken as popular Oriya album numbers ‘Damara Kau’ and ‘Alo lo mo jibana Radha’. But then, a careful listening gives it out - the tracks have been given electoral colour.
With only a week to go for the Cuttack Municipal Corporation (CMC) polls, songs and music lifted from Oriya superhit numbers including bhajans have become the flavour of the campaigning.
Rickshaws and autos, converted into poll vehicles, crisscross the city with the parodied versions of popular music blaring from the sound systems atop them. If individual candidates extol their virtues and lay down their priorities musically before their electorate, parties have adapted the tunes to ridicule, rile and run down on each other.
To accompany the music and songs, slogans and mimicked speeches of prominent leaders along with the candidates own recorded versions are making rounds of the wards.
The musical campaigning has been more pronounced in these polls than the preceding ones. And in the process, the recording studios that have been under pressure of late due to downtrend in music industry, particularly the small ones, have found a waterhole.
So have some music directors and lyricists.
Says Murlidhar Satpathy, who runs Diamond Orchestra and indulges in music direction too, ‘‘There has been a distinctive shift towards music parody in electioneering this time. Candidates prefer it as the message is better disseminated through the songs. Recorded speeches also makes an impact.’’ A package costs between Rs 4,000 and Rs 5,000. It includes some songs, speeches and slogans for the candidate or the party. And majority of the candidates in this poll has adopted the means.
But there are some, who still believe that personal contact makes a great difference. Dharmesh Nayak, BJD city general secretary and party candidate for Ward No.2, is one.
‘‘As long as you do not directly mix and interact with your electorate, the connect would be non-existent. Your electorate should know the candidate personally and that’s not a big task for a local body election,’’ he explains.