Spending on election ads may cross Rs 300-cr mark

Currently with two regional news channels,each party is running neck to neck in airtime war,“We are charging a 40 per cent premium over the usual spot rates that vary from Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000. Both BJP and Congress are dominating airtime with 60 to 65 spots each,where Congress is leading. BJP will soon come up with another slew of ads as Chief Minister Narendra Modi completes 4,000 days in governance. Spots could vary from anywhere between 30 seconds to a minute,”said a marketing head from a local news channel on conditions of anonymity.

Meanwhile,poll campaigns have heated up the radio waves as well. The revenues generated from polls could be to the tune of Rs 1 crore for the industry. “Congress has 12 to 15 ads per day of 25 to 30 seconds while BJP has started 40 days back and currently they air around 15 to 18 ads per day that will multiply as election inches closer. BJP has given already spent close to Rs 15 lakh last month. We sometimes take a call as a radio station not to run certain ads that are too direct,” said an radio programming head,who didn’t want to be named.

The Congress ads have the slogan — disha badlo,dasha badlo (change the direction,change the condition),while the BJP audio and video ads resound with a “slap” to emphasise the “injustice of the celtral government on Gujarat. Getting more aggressive,the Congress also included ads on malnutrition in Gujarat.

However,a group of citizens led by Cedric Prakash,director of a city-based NGO,made a public appeal by writing to the Election Commission to withdraw the ads.

“We were the first to introduce radio campaigns since July and BJP was forced to follow suit. We have spent about Rs 5-6 crore only on radio channels,” said Gaurav Pandya,spokesperson of Gujarat Congress.

“Ours ads are more of an answer to the Congress ads. We are in the process of revamping our party website and are hosting many contests on Facebook,” said Rajika Kacheria,IT cell convenor for BJP,Gujarat.

GPP will also kick off the pre-poll race with a party anthem in a week with a low budget of Rs 15 lakh. “A five-minute long party anthem is on the anvil that will ply on the theme of common man. Rather than advertising,GPP has been focussing on their road-shows,” said a party worker.