As the political turf in Orissa gets hotter with every passing day in the run-up to the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state, the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and its former ally Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress have gone all out on the advertisement campaign to reach out to the electorate.
As a part of their poll preparedness, these parties are making frenzied attempts to spread their political campaigns through different media- be it print, electronic, radio or outdoor publicity through hoardings.
It is going to be an intense triangular fight in this year’s elections following the snapping of the 11-year old alliance between the BJD and the BJP. Trade sources revealed that the BJP is trailing the BJD on the publicity front as the regional outfit has so far spent nearly ten times that of the saffron party on advertisements.
“Even though the BJP kicked off its advertisement campaign in for the polls in Orissa about a week ahead of the BJD, it has not gone overboard on the publicity front. On the contrary, the BJD’s advertising budget for the upcoming Assembly and Lok Sabha elections is almost twice compared to the polls of 2004”, said sources.
While all the three parties are increasingly banking on the print media to reach out to the voters, it is in the advertisement space in the print media and penetration of the local vernacular newspapers where the BJD has scored over the Congress and the BJP. Apart from leading Oriya dailies, the BJD was going for advertisements in lesser known Oriya newspapers published from the state.
In general, the political parties in the state are spoilt for choices in this year’s elections as far as the advertisement on the different media is concerned.
The regional media space in the state has grown significantly in the past few years both in the print and electronic domains, leading to the emergence of new newspapers, FM channels and 24x7 news channels. This has provided more options to the political parties for advertisements for the ensuing elections, compared to the 2004 polls.
The advertisement campaign of the different political parties for the upcoming polls in the state which resumed in the last week of March this year is set to continue till April 21 barring the days of the polling and also 24 hours before the commencement of the polls.
The Lok Sabha and Assembly polls in the state are scheduled to be held in two phases on April 16 and April 23 this year.
