Nostalgia hits streets as loudspeaker-mounted rickshaws make a comeback in municipal corporation elections
Even as the focus of election campaigns has shifted to digital platforms, one can still feel nostalgic while hearing political slogans blaring from loudspeakers mounted on auto-rickshaws as is evident from these three-wheelers roaming in the city during the campaigning for the Municipal Corporation (MC) elections.
Until the 2012 Assembly elections, regular announcements echoed in every corner of the city through loudspeakers installed on auto-rickshaws or rehris (Hand-drawn carts) which displayed party symbols and pictures of candidates.
With social media and digital platforms gaining prominence during the election campaigning, loudspeaker-mounted auto-rickshaws were not seen in the Assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
However, in the elections for the local bodies, candidates are still using auto-rickshaws to send personal messages to voters in their respective wards.
Besides the trend of weighing candidates with coins and sweets is no more in vogue due to restrictions on candidates regarding their election expenditure.
“If a candidate is weighed with sweets, the cost of eatables will be included in his election expenses and for weighing with coins a candidate will have to submit details to the authorities concerned. Candidates themselves are wary of getting weighed with sweets or coins nowadays,” said a local leader.
More than two decades ago, the trend of spreading recorded messages through loudspeakers by candidates was so popular that a person from Fatehgarh Churian was named Om Puri by people as his deep voice was in high demand during election campaigns. Old timers say Om Puri was so much in demand that even candidates from other districts contacted him for recording their messages his voice.
In contrast, present day candidates prefer personalised messages in their own voice, which are delivered to voters in their respective areas through automated calls, in a bid to touch a personal chord with them.
