NEW DELHI: BJP’s campaign material for the Feb 5 assembly polls criticises AAP by drawing unflattering parallels from popular Hindi films. The party is targeting Arvind Kejriwal and Atishi through modified promotional materials resembling Bollywood movie posters. The movies that the party has chosen for the purpose revolve around theft or corruption, films such as Bunty aur Babli, Pushpa 2, Special 26, Jolly LLB, Lootera and Bhool Bhulaiya.
The party has zeroed in on the strategy of using voice imitations of AAP stalwarts to highlight corruption allegations against them. In one campaign poster, ex-CM Kejriwal is shown in a portrayal reminiscent of stock market manipulator Harshad Mehta and the caption reads, Farzi voters se ishq hai.
In recent times, AAP and BJP have accused each other of trying to rig the voter list by deleting and adding names. Another poster depicts Kejriwal styled after Allu Arjun with the line, “AAP nahi AAPda hai main (Not AAP but disaster)”. BJP has been using this phonetic theme as an election slogan with “AAPda nahi sahenge, badal ke rahenge (Will not tolerate disaster, we will usher in change).”
A BJP functionary said that the reason the party had decided on such a campaign measure was because it wanted to connect with the youth and those who don’t follow politics. “You cannot expect everyone to be aware of what’s happening in Delhi politics. The posters of popular films give an idea of what the movie is about. But we have rephrased the movie taglines and this will strike a chord with social media audiences,” he said. Another functionary said the humour in these more ably communicated the message than political clips.
The functionary said that while the party made such posters, it also tried to ensure that they had relevance with the sentiments on the ground. “The issues that you see us depicting in the posters are the ones that people talk about in the localities,” he claimed. While most posters taunt Kejriwal for the renovation of the CM’s residence, the videos project him as a chunavi (election-time) Hindu.
One poster features Kejriwal in a pose reminiscent of Govinda from the film Raja Babu. The text on the poster reads: Thug Film presents AAPda walon ka Sheesh Mahal. The poster has an image of the controversial chief minister’s residence on Flag Staff Road in the background.
BJP has also been circulating modified film clips with dubbed voices resembling those of Kejriwal and Atishi. A notable example on the party’s social media channels features a scene from Jolly LLB, where Akshay Kumar’s character, a barrister, interrogates someone.
The dialogue centres on questions on why money was given to pujaris and granthis, to which the man responds, “For votes.” Another video from the Maharani web series, in which voice-over artists were used, shows a conversation between Kejriwal and Atishi.
They are shown saying that the scheme to give money to pujaris and granthis was a chunavi jumla. AAP recently announced the Pujari, Granthi Samman Yojana, under which temple priests and gurdwara granthis will receive an honorarium of about Rs 18,000 per month.
Insiders said BJP had a large team of social media volunteers who have been told that these posters should reach the WhatsApp groups of residents, RWAs and market associations.
