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In the early years after the Independence, election posters were rare and handwritten on white paper or old newspapers. In our area, single-colour printed posters, petromax and loud speakers began appearing much after the first general election in 1952.

As a school boy, this writer used to walk miles to attend such rallies just for the glamour. Multi-colour litho-printed posters made in Sivakashi began appearing in Kerala some time around 1955. In 1982, when a poster with S. Bangarappa’s picture appeared on Delhi walls, the Congress leadership asked him to pull it down. Those days, Congress posters had party symbols and Indira Gandhi’s picture. Not any other leaders’.

After Gandhi romped back to power, at some time around 1982, the Congress  began distributing centralised posters in Hindi and English. Once the parliamentary board decided on ticket, the incumbent goes to an MP’s  Bungalow on Krishna Menon Marg and collect half of the allotted election fund and make arrangement to sent posters and other campaign materials to the constituency. 

The centralised poster distribution was discontinued soon after. A little after the mid-80s, elections became more colourful and noisy. Cassettes and CDs blared out noisy songs and skits, most of them  parodies of popular Bollywood songs. Vehicles fitted with loudspeakers went round the  crowded   streets. 

The modernisation of the election was first initiated by what we derisively called Rajiv Gandhi’s backroom boys. They had hired Rediffusion to design Congress election posters and handouts and media advertisements. Before this, all such work was done by office staff at Congress office on Jantar Mantar Road. 

Ironically, those who had initially looked down on Rajiv Gandhi’s wiz kids of 1984 were the first to adopt the modern technology for election campaign. A few years after the ‘computer boys’ – another term for the Rajiv aides – experiments, BJP  as well as Congress competed in the use of campaign cassettes and CDs during the elections. Songs, slogans and skits blared out from vehicles fitted with high decibel music system.

As media reporters, we have been witness to the sweeping transformation in the entire gamut of elections: from candidate selection, publicity, modernisation of electoral machinery, concept........

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