The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) convener Arvind Kejriwal is pulling out all the stops to repeat its previous poll performance in the national Capital. In his latest, Kejriwal has now decided to interact with Delhiites through radio shows — a style initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi through ‘Mann Ki Baat’. This apart, in its bid to collect around 30 crore for the party to fight the upcoming polls, the former Delhi Chief Minister, on Sunday, will also hold a luncheon with traders in Connaught Place to raise funds. The date of Assembly polls is yet to be announced but the BJP and the AAP in Delhi have started campaigning through radio jingles to reach out to the maximum number of voters.
However, apart from the usual party ads to ads to seek donations, the leader has gone a step forward and will now interact with the public in a live chat from next week. Kejriwal’s radio segment will be played in private radio channels and the first episode will be aired on December 3.
“Yes, Arvind Kejriwal will be interacting with the city dwellers on radio. This will be an important aspect of our campaign. Campaigns on the radio have a massive reach. About 10 million people tune on to eight private radio channels and seven Central Government-owned channels in Delhi,” said a senior party leader.
Although the Assembly elections in Delhi are yet to be announced, the airwaves have already turned into a political battlefield. Kejriwal’s recorded messages have been playing again on city FM channels, countered this time by the BJP’s campaign. The ruling party has not only been airing messages from its Delhi unit leaders, but also its star campaigner, PM Modi, exhorting people to join his ‘Swachchh Bharat’ campaign or talking about his Government’s other achievements.
The radio war between the AAP and the BJP has begun in earnest with catchy lines and phrases attacking each other and promoting their leaders. Interestingly, the Congress is missing. The BJP and AAP have even stopped attacking or talking about the grand old party, which ruled the national Capital for 15 years as if it is completely irrelevant.
During the 2013 Assembly elections, about seven FM channels aired AAP’s messages in phases. In his “Mann ki Baat” series, the PM picks an issue and invites feedback before making his address of about 15-18 minutes. He has made two such addresses and has said that he plans to use them to mobilise support among ordinary people for his agenda of change.
A senior BJP leader say that TV advertising is prohibitively expensive (parties have to cough up anywhere up to Rs2-3 lakh for a 10-second spot); newspapers are not cheap either and don’t have the intimacy of the airwaves. Radio, on the other hand, costs around Rs1000 to Rs3,000 for 10 seconds. And no one can do what a radio does best - use the intimacy of a single voice to sell a story.
