Banners, posters of political parties reign supreme in poll-bound M’laya

SHILLONG, Dec 12: As Meghalaya gets ready for the festival of democracy after five years, political parties have changed their modus operandi to woo the electorates — the focus is laid less on installation of party flags and more on the branding of the party with the help of banners and posters.
While the Election Commission of India (ECI) is yet to announce the dates for Assembly elections in Meghalaya, the political parties are going all out in projecting themselves as the jewel in the crown of Meghalaya politics.
Similar has been the scene in Shillong.
This scribe visited various parts of the city only to find big posters and banners of Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Trinamool Congress (TMC) as well as the ruling National People’s Party (NPP).
The posters have been put up on advertisement hoardings, walls and even local taxis.
While the branding of political parties continues to take precedence, select people have taken it upon themselves to exercise their artistry months before exercising their franchise by defacing the posters and making them comical.
In one such poster of BJP in Jaiaw, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP national president JP Nadda and state BJP president Ernest Mawrie have been made to look like musicians, with guitar and mic drawn on the poster.
Apart from this, many political banners and posters have also been either damaged, spat on or torn.
While the BJP advertisements that have been put up across Shillong say ‘Modi for Development, BJP for Meghalaya’ and provide a phone number for people to give a missed call to join the party, the NPP’s advertisements in Shillong project Conrad Sangma as the ‘People’s Chief Minister’.
The TMC had also earlier pasted similar advertisements all across the city, asking people to ‘Be The Change’.
When asked about the cost of advertisements, a BJP leader said that over Rs 10 crore must have been shelled out.
However, NPP leaders, who were contacted to about the same, expressed ignorance about the cost of advertisements.
As of now, political parties like Congress and United Democratic Party are yet to jump on the bandwagon.
However, it is also important to remember that the political campaigns have just begun in Meghalaya.