Only punch, no glitz or moolah in SP-BSP rallies

LUCKNOW: They managed to stitch one of the most unexpected and unlikely alliances, and then proved all sceptics wrong by pulling off the entire joint campaign without any hiccups. The influence of one on the other was never so audible and visible, as both SP and BSP ran an extremely minimalist poll campaign.

Unlike previous elections, SP did not release even a single advertisement on social media this time, unlike full-fledged campaigns with ‘Mann Se Hain Mulayam’ and ‘Ummeed Ki Cycle’ taglines earlier.

SP chief Akhilesh Yadav seems to have followed senior alliance partner Mayawati as BSP never issues advertisements in social media and relies on people-to-people connect and holding rallies.

The two parties focussed almost entirely on low key campaign, the only exception being around 20 joint rallies addressed by Mayawati, Akhilesh and RLD chief Ajit Singh.

No larger than life cut-outs or hoardings were put up by SP and BSP anywhere. The focus was on targeting voters at booth-level through nukkad meetings and door-to-door visits. While SP has been focussing on social media networking ever since Akhilesh started leading the party from front, Mayawati stayed away from social media till early 2019 when she took to Twitter to voice opinion. “We refrained from social media campaign as part of strategy and only focussed on public meetings and nukkad sabhas,” Akhilesh said.

SP also did not release any campaign on television or cable networks like previous elections. In 2013, SP had bought the rights of Billy Joel’s popular number ‘We didn’t start the fire’ for adaptation into ‘Mann se hain Mulayam’ the SP campaign anthem for 2014 Lok Sabha polls. It was Ummeed ki cycle in 2017 assembly elections. The party had also roped in Bollywood music director duo Sajid-Wajid for party songs.

SP spokesperson Udayveer Singh said, “We adpted a simple strategy. First, we spoke about the failures of BJP government and emphasised on promises they failed to fulfil. Secondly, we also made people aware of schemes under SP and BSP governments from which they benefited and how they were stopped when BJP came to power.”

A senior BSP member said that even if SP and BSP had pooled resources, they would still have not matched BJP’s campaign and hence opted for joint rallies.