PUNE, AUG 29: Audiences at Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar's rally need no longer look around startled if a screech frequently interrupts his speech. It is only a four-feet high wooden contraption of a clock that will go `trrng' whenever activated by remote control.Or, one might just be blinded by the revolving lights inside translucent boxes atop Tata Sumos that illuminate the panja stamped liberally on all four sides.Yet another election, zany campaign ideas - but almost no takers. No forty-feet high cut-outs of leaders waving energetically or beaming a namaste. No ten-feet high panjas looming over the city. ``Parties this year are willing to spend only up to Rs 20,000 per candidate instead of the usual Rs 1 lakh for such campaign material,'' says Digambar Suryavanshi, supervising the making of his unsold alarm clock, which stands amidst creations flaunting the lotus, hand, and banners for underworld don-turned-politician Arun Gawli too.After nearly 20 years in the business,Suryavanshi of Rangashri Arts, whose workers laboured for four days to make a forty-feet high Sonia Gandhi cut-out for her recent rally in Bhor, are today limited to churning out the expected 3,000 banners this campaign season. Insignificant, because there was a time when they produced 12,000 just for the Congress, or at least 4,000 per candidate!``The BJP has not placed any orders for hoardings and cut-outs this election,'' says Ujwal Keskar, publicity-in-charge, who clarifies that price is no bar. ``Our workers cannot afford to waste eight to ten days asking the Pune Municipal Corporation, the skyline department and police officials for permissions. The party has decided to play up the audio-visual campaign instead.''Size matters, for square feet can be crucial in cutting costs. So the eight-feet long cloth hoardings that go for Rs 1,000 are now limited to six feet. Cut-outs of the panja have shrunk from ten feet to a mere three.Plywood is out, no longer worth the effort of applying primer and twocoats of oil paint wash before painting. Canvas is in; it costs much less. And no one is interested in the once-popular tiranga floral murals on plywood with the hand pasted all over the border, for it touches Rs 50 per square foot - strange for an industry where the advance payments range from Rs 50,000 to a lakh. Daily turnovers for these businesses are not expected to cross Rs 15,000 this election.But the enthusiasm is palpable, as Manisha, Suryavanshi's daughter, churns out a slogan a minute, like, ``Niwdun dewu haath, Soniaji la dewu saath'' or, ``Ghadyalawar shikka, vijay pucca.''However the buzzword among hoarding contractors, like Dhirendra Jahagirdar, who has put in eighteen years in the profession, is that elections are no big deal this time round. ``Business this election is down more than 50 per cent,'' they say, blaming it all on former chief election commissioner T N Seshan!But Suryavanshi, who says, ``Congress ne mala motha kele (The Congress has made me big),''from selling chana and wadas on a handcart to controlling more than 15 workers for orders from Mumbai, Buldhana, Nashik, Solapur and Sangli, has bigger plans.Come 2001, he hopes to erect a 2,001 inch-high cut-out of Sant Dnyaneshwar for the palkhi, encompassing 4,800 pieces of plywood, the efforts of 20 workers over three months, all built with donations.
