The all important election campaign for the crucial assembly election in West Bengal has thrown up some interesting trends. Since the use of microphone is not allowed till the school leaving examinations are over, the political parties have restricted themselves to road shows, and their leaders are regularly appearing in the vernacular news channels to espouse their causes.
In the last two weeks Mamata Banerjee, Buddhadev Bhattacharjee and other leaders featured in a number of such television programmes where they were allowed to have their say on various issues. The findings of the TV Rating (TVR) show that Mamata Banerjee is drawing much more viewers than her bete noire Buddhadev Bhattacharjee.
Keeping in tune with the sharply polarized society, the news channels are also divided. The political leaders also appear in the channel accordingly. The 24 Ghanta channel, where the chief minister appeared on March 26 in a programme called ‘Mukhomukhi Mukhyamantri’ (face to face with the chief minister). The programme was aired live from 19:01 to 20:40 hours. According to TAM report it got 0.76 TVR. Star Ananda aired Mukhomukhi Mamata (face to face with Mamata) on April 1, from 19:59 to 21:48 hours, the TVR of that was 1.68, far higher than what the programme with Buddhadev was. Interestingly, the programme of former chief secretary Manish Gupta, who is contesting the election on TMC ticket from Jadavpur against Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, has also got higher number of viewers than the chief minister’s programme. Mukhomukhi Manish (face to face with Manish) aired on Star Ananda on March 31 from 18:59 to 19:24 hrs and again 21:58 to 22:22 hrs drew 0.62 and 0.78 TVR points.
Mamata Banerjee also appeared in similar programme aired by Kolkata TV. On March 27, Kolkata TV aired Mukhomukhi Mamata (face to face with Mamata) from 21:06 to 22:19 hrs.Though the reach of this channel is much less than 24 Ghanta and Star Ananda --the Kolkata TV’s reach is 38.73% compared to Star Ananda’s 50.43% and 24 Ghanta’s 46.98%--Mamata’s programme earned 0.58 TVR points. The programme was repeated later on the same day and next day, earning them 0.43 and 0.35 TVR points respectively.
