Even as the schedule of Andhra Pradesh legislative assembly polls is likely to be announced in a week's time, all the major political parties have already gone all out with sarcastic television advertisements targeting their rivals.
If the most media savvy Telugu Desam is using two yellow hatchlings to target and expose the "corruption" of the chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, the Congress is using the Kaun Banega Crorepati format and two ladies on the hot seats to expose the "dual face" of Telugu Desam and other constituents of the Grand Alliance. While the two chicks are shown ridiculing the chief minister and his various policies, the Congress ads modeled on KBC are more hard hitting.
"The idea is to show to the people how overnight the stand of the TDP, TRS and the left parties changed towards each other", said a senior leader of Congress involved in the making of the ad films. For instance the anchor woman in the ad ask the contestant in hot seat, "who successfully adopted the use and throw method in politics" and reads out four options. "Chandrababu Naidu" replies the contestant and is declared as hundred percent correct.
On the other hand the actor turned politician Chiranjeevi is also using his favorite medium to target both the Congress and the TDP describing both of them as anti-farmer and anti-poor.
One ad tells the people that the book Babu Zamana, Avinithi Khazana about the corruption under Naidu's rulewas published by the Communist Party of India-Marxist. The ad the parties once bitterly opposed to each other had now joined only with the purpose of defeating Congress is being fully exploited by the Congress party to exposed their unprincipled stand.
The Congress is producing 11 such films, each of 50 second duration to be shown on all the television channels. One ad has footageshowing what NT Rama Rao had said about Naidu after latter had toppled him in 1995. The films also show the comments Naidu made against lthe Left, and the Left leaders ranting against Naidu and the TRS.
Chiranjeevi's Praja Rajyam party has issued an ad which has clippings of police firing on farmers in 2000 in Hyderabad when Naidu was CM and in Modigunda village of Khammam in July 2007. The ads says that the governments have changed but the sufferings of the farmers and the common people have not changed.
There is not much the Election Commission can do about the contents of these ads. Officials in chief election Officer's office said that the election publicity material would come under their purview only after the election schedule is announced.
