MUMBAI: The wackier the better. There is no dearth of ideas in Maharashtra when it comes to election campaigns of various parties. Young aspirants are thinking out-of-the-box to promote themselves and target opponents.
The BJP has launched a poster war against the ruling Congress-Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) government. The party publishes one poster everyday on its Twitter handle and Facebook page highlighting several “failures” of the state government.
Jiten Gajaria, head of BJP’s social media cell, said his team was keen on reaching several issues to the voters through a visual medium. “What better than a cartoon to carry a right message?” he said.
Gajaria’s team of technicians and cartoonists are giving the e-posters a festive feel. On one poster, they have depicted a common person who is going to immerse the Congress-NCP government in the sea similar to the Ganesh visarjan a few days ago. The other e-poster compares the Congress-NCP government with Ravan. “This Ravan’s soul lies in his corruption. Let us kill this Ravan so the corruption also gets destroyed,” the caption reads.
“We will intensify the poster war as poll fever rises. This is a much cheaper form of campaign. We are paying the cartoonist only. Our workers are contributing ideas on their own without expecting any remuneration,” Gajaria said.
In faraway Kankavli, a sleepy town in Konkan region, Congress aspirant Nitesh Rane has developed a mobile phone game depicting himself as a super hero. Son of influential Congress leader and Industries Minister Narayan Rane, Nitesh will be making his debut in electoral politics
Titled “Kankavli cha super hero”, the game depicts Nitesh as someone who has solutions to 16 prominent issues including infrastructure, water supply and sanitation in the constituency. Engineering students of Sindhudurg Shikshan Prasarak Mandal, controlled by the Ranes, developed the game for Nitesh. The game has 16 levels named water supply, sanitation, education etc. A player needs to clear hurdles in all the levels to win the game. The super hero (Nitesh) helps the player to clear the hurdles.
Nitesh said he is the first politician from the state to develop such a mobile game. “I think the game is a fantastic platform to engage with the youth. We need to reach to the relevant target audience and we will do so plainly through word of mouth publicity,” he said.
Nitesh claimed that the game was a gift to him by the people of Kankavli. “The engineering students have done this with their good will,” he said.
However, a cyber expert said that any mobile game nevertheless of its size and reach could not be developed for less than Rs 1 crore.