Ahead of the first phase of Lok Sabha elections this week, both the national parties — BJP and Congress — intensified their campaign to woo voters by launching theme songs and slogans on Sunday.
While the BJP’s tag line of “Phir ek bar, Modi sarkar” (Modi Government, once more) revolves around the Modi’s five-year performance), the Congress’ propelled a slogan ‘Ab Hoga Nyay’ alleging that an atmosphere of ‘anyay’ (injustice) was prevailing in the country so far.
Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley launched the party’s campaign themes for the Lok Sabha polls and asserted that the choice for people in the elections will be between the “cohesive and tested” Government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and “chaos and mahamilawat” offered by the Opposition.
Taking a swipe at the Opposition, he said people have to decide between a Government led by one captain or a team of 11 players, and that of 40 captains. Jaitley said these promises are not for future as the Government has fulfilled them in its five year term. The BJP will launch its manifesto on Monday.
Jaitley was joined by Union Minister Piyush Goyal and BJP General Secretary Bhupender Yadav, among
others, at the press conference, where they also released
slogans and video materials for the party’s campaign.
The poor, the middle class and the neo-middle class will be at the centre of the BJP’s electioneering, said Jaitley
and took a swipe at the Congress for “not even saying a word” on the emerging middle class when it launched its manifesto.
Pitching for a majority for the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls like it got in 2014, Jaitley said it enabled the party to take decisive and big decisions on a host of measures, including national security, corruption and black money.
Congress campaign will be centred around ‘Nyay’ and the word not only alludes to the Congress’ proposed minimum guarantee scheme but encompasses justice to all sections of society, senior leader Anand Sharma said at a Press conference.
“There is a cry for justice in the country which has been denied to the poor,” he said while emphasising that “the campaign will focus on winning hearts”. Sharma said the party has followed the Election Commission guidelines and taken all necessary permissions for its publicity.
Main theme song of Congress ‘Main hi toh Hindustan hoon’ has been penned by famous lyricist and a former Rajay Sabha member Javed Akhtar, while the campaign film has been directed by Nikkhil Advani and the cinematography is by Tushar Kanti Ray, the concept and script was provided by Anuja Chauhan, and the music was composed by Arjunna Harjai.
Congress president Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, members of the campaign panel as well that of the core committee were involved in brainstorming the campaign strategy.
The themes covered in the campaign include the ‘Nyay’ scheme, poverty eradication, jobs for unemployed youths, farmers, women reservation, simplified GST, universal health care, education and startups as promised in the Congress manifesto.
Party leaders said it is a 360-degrees cross-platform campaign that includes TV films, cinema spots, radio jingles, hoardings and digital screens, print advertisements, social media and public transport.
A special feature of the campaign will be thousands of container trucks with Congress campaign advertisements on them taking the party’s message to various parts if the country starting Sunday.
The campaign also has regional adaptations in six vernacular languages, including Marathi, Bengali, Gujarati, Assamese, and Malayalam.
Other members of the committee are senior leaders Motilal Vohra, Rajiv Shukla, Randeep Surjewala and Pawan Khera. The ‘Nyay campaign’ promises justice to youth, farmers, entrepreneurs and all those who have suffered injustice at the hands of the Modi Government, Sharma said.