The Congress has started using one paramotor glider for its election campaign in Uttarakhand for dropping publicity material about the achievements of the Congress led State and Union Government. While Congress leaders believe that this will give the party an edge in the polls, the BJP believes that this move will actually backfire and prove detrimental to the Congress as people living in areas without proper road links will view this as a taunt.
Uttarakhand has become the fourth State where the Congress has resorted to using a paramotor glider for campaigning with the party hoping that among other factors, the novelty value of this machine will elicit public attention. A paramotor glider can be used to drop either publicity material or transport a candidate to scores of villages in a day especially in places without proper road links.
This flying machine can cover about 100 kms in a day, dropping either polling material or transporting a candidate for lesser cost than a helicopter. According to the Congress State spokesman Surendra Kumar, the paramotor glider was used to drop publicity material in Haridwar Parliamentary constituency on Monday. “We dropped material to inform the public about the achievements of the Congress Governments at the Centre and State. The use of the paramotor glider has elicited a positive response from the public. We will try to use the para motor glider in mountainous regions and even use it to transport the party candidate if permitted by the election commission,” he said. However, BJP State spokesman Prakash Suman Dhyani said that such “tricks” will not help the Congress win the lok Sabha elections. “This move will backfire on the Congress as people living in areas without proper road links will feel as if they are being teased by the party which had failed to ensure proper road connections. If the Congress had performed as good as is being claimed then it would have built a proper road network which would have done away with the need for using a paramotor glider,” he said.