Rookie party plans flash mobs in B’lore; others stick to basics

As electioneering picks up, established parties have stuck to the basics, trying to meet voters one-to-one during door-to-door canvassing. But the new chip on the block, AAP, is resorting to a relative novelty - flash mobs to catch eyeballs, especially those of Gen X.

A common phenomenon these days across the world, flash mobs are an assembly of people who come together for the purpose of a common expression or to convey a satiric message.

It also has a lot of entertainment value, with most of them being organised in large shopping malls across the country. AAP State convenor Prithvi Reddy said that the party was scheduled to have flash mobs across Bangalore, to ensure visibility.

“These flash mobs will be scheduled with the permission of the Election Commission,” he said.

However, V Balakrishnan, AAP candidate for Bangalore Central, plans to pursue traditional means like motorcades rallies, due to paucity of time. 

For the BJP, the central campaign committee has decided that it will centralise the mode of reaching out to voters. Candidates are mere pawns, according one of them, in the party’s strategy to connect with the voters. It is said that some candidates are told only a day prior to the actual rally or meeting scheduled in their respective constituencies.

The JD(S), however, doing the exact opposite by decentralising its campaign efforts. Its purse tightened, the party has asked the candidates themselves to schedule their rallies and meetings. 

In the Congress, while most candidates have started slowly, they are trying to build a steady wave by hosting several meetings with local leaders and trying to build a sizeable votebank for themselves.

In Bangalore Central, Rizwan Arshad is stated to be engaging in several such meetings with local community leaders and trying to encash on their connect with the local population. In Tumkur, Congress candidate S P Muddahanume Gowda said that he will begin his actual campaign after a few visits to the local leaders to seek their support.

“For now, we are trying to build a momentum with small-scale canvassing,” he said.  

As the summer heat picks up, it is likely that the candidates, too, will start rushing through with their campaigns.