EC bonanza for parties on Doordarshan, AIR

The 34 state parties, recognised under the Elections Symbols Order, 1968, have been assigned a total of 61 hours on DD and AIR.

Since the free air time is being extended only to the recognised parties, newly formed parties like Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress and R K Hegde’s Lok Shakti would be left out in the cold.

The guidelines have been drawn up after two rounds of discussions with representatives of the national and regional parties in May and December last year.

Though the question of state-funding for election campaigns has been hanging fire for a long time with no signs of an acceptable solution in sight, the Commission feels that the free time on AIR and DD would significantly reduce election expenditure.

With the widespread reach of AIR and DD, parties would be able to save large amounts of funds which would otherwise be spent on propaganda and publicity. In a way, the free time to the political parties would amount to “indirect state funding”, with the added advantage that there would be no money transactions ruling out misuse nor would it involve maintenance of detailed accounts.

The Commission is hoping that political parties will take full advantage of the scheme entailing 122 free hours on the national channel which reaches the far corners of the country, Deputy Election Commissioner Subas Pani told journalists. “Ultimately the Indian voter should be able to make an intelligent and informed choice when he votes”, said Pani.

The highlight of the television exposure will be two national discussions to be aired on DD and AIR in which parties can nominate their representatives to present the party’s viewpoint.