Sleek mantra: Parties rope in agencies, use 145;legal146; space for ads

With the war of words from above the new bus shelters and leaking public toilets intensifying on neon-lit hoardings...

With the war of words from above the new bus shelters and leaking public toilets intensifying on neon-lit hoardings, the Election Commission of India EC has directed municipal agencies to submit a report on the number of legal advertising sites in public spaces being used by political parties.

Thanks to the stringent laws imposed by the EC and municipal agencies, political parties are now using 8220;legal8221; advertising spaces 8212; like public utilities and bus shelters 8212; for their pre-election canvassing, say MCD officials.

And that helps taking expenses into account. 8220;It8217;s an easy way to monitor expenditure on campaigning,8221; says Amiya Chandra, head of MCD8217;s remuneration cell. 8220;We have been asked to round up all ad agencies that own the rights for providing legal advertising space and give an estimate of the amount spent on advertising.8221;

Chandra says the report would be submitted to ECI within this week.

Though MCD has already filed about 1,000 FIRs against illegal hoardings since Monday, with parties like BJP and Congress hiring reputed advertising firms to design their election campaigns, officials claim the number of challans against illegal advertising has reduced considerably this time.

The Sheila Diskhit government had started a Rs 40-crore ad campaign in September, with slogans like 8220;Har Din Hoti Behetarin, Dilli MereLliye8221; and 8220;Mere Liye Sawar Rahi Hai Dilli8221; designed by agencies Dentsu, Crayon, Lintas and Triton along flyovers, bus stops and Metro stations. Sushil Pandit8217;s agency The Hive, which did the campaign for Modi during the Gujarat elections, is churning out slogans for the BJP: 8220;Congress Mehengi Padi8221;, and 8220;Sacrifice vs Sedition8221;, over the Jamia Nagar encounter incident.

The Congress, which has hired Delhi-based ad firm Crayons for the Lok Sabha polls as well for a price of Rs 150 crore, is yet to kickstart its campaign in the final round of the Assembly polls.

Story continues below this ad

Not willing to divulge campaign details, Rashpal Rana, in-charge of the campaign at Crayons, said, 8220;We are still in the process of strategising but the campaign will start on November 15.8221;