Gone are the days when candidates contesting election relied on bland lines coming out of loudspeakers mounted on the top of a four-wheeler designed specially for campaigning during the greatest festival of democracy. The vehicle mounted sound machines now propagate messages through songs based on tunes of Hindi chartbusters and ever green Nagpuria songs.
As the date of polling is coming near song based campaigning has gained momentum with almost all candidates’ campaign vehicle trying to place themselves in the minds of an electorate by reminding them their name, symbol and the date of polling. Yesteryear melodies from movies like ‘Hum Apke Hain Kaun’ to the latest movie ‘Chennai Express’. Even patriotic songs have been modified to give it the form of an appeal to vote.
“The unusualness of a song which people hear regularly makes people stop and listen it even for a minute. It’s enough to plant a candidate in people’s mind even they pay attention for a minute,” said Chandra Dev, a member of JVM candidate Amitabh Chaudhary’s campaign team.
Interestingly, few parties also look informed about choice of songs to convey their message to an electorate. The AJSU party which has fielded supremo Sudesh Kumar Mahto from Ranchi parliamentary constituency had given a list of latest songs that incidentally topped the charts. The AJSU’s vehicle says ‘AJSU hai apna party party…’ (based on Aaj Blu Hai Pani Pani) the Bhartiya Janta Party is making an appeal through ‘Kamal Chhap Pe hai Vote lagana …’ (based on Didi Tera Devar Diwana). For the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha candidate the time is ripe to remind people of the sacrifices made during freedom struggle through a parody based on lata Mangeskar song-- Ai Mere Watan Ke logo—and ask them to vote in their favour.
However, despite the differences in songs the message being spread is almost identical in every song. The issues- corruption, unemployment and a better life under a party’s reign- raised in party manifesto have find way in the lyrics composed for its candidate.
Craving for musical campaigning is equally intense among independent candidates contesting from Ranchi as well as from other constituencies in Jharkhand. As many as four to five independent candidates have approached city based lyricists to prepare a song highlighting issues and symbol given for the contesting the election.
Nonetheless, barring few exceptions the tunes that are being used are neither the choice of a candidate nor the election management team of respective candidates. Candidates who approach recording studios only provide basic information and leave a composer to do jugglery with lyrics to produce the best parody or hire a lyricist depending on the type of composition. The tunes in a majority of cases are selected by a composer and the selection is made according to the words of the message or information that best fits in a particular tune.
“Usually I compose the songs with the help of singers. We rarely hire lyricists for composing songs. Even the songs that you listen are the one we select for candidates,” said renowned city based
composer Bullu Ghosh.