Kolkata walls a riot of colour with poll graffiti

In an era of high-tech electioneering when SMS on cellphones or electronic displays are more in order, Kolkata clings to one of the oldest mode of poll campaigning – wall posters and graffiti.

Come elections and the city's walls are under a virtual siege from political party workers. The city's walls turn into a riot of colour all delivering some political message.

Armed with paint and brush, bands of youths get down to write political slogans and draw poll graffiti all along the city's main thoroughfares. Every inch of space counts and by the time the poll approaches near, not one wall is left untouched.

During elections, Kolkata gets one more epithet to the already existing ones – 'a city of posters and wall graffiti'.

Advertising agency representatives in this city admit that Kolkata excels ahead of other Indian cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai or Bangalore when it comes to using walls for political campaigning.

"It's the cheapest and probably the easiest way to drive one's message home. It is long lasting too, with millions of square metres of wall space displaying static messages for weeks and even months," said Archak Bhaduri, an executive of an advertising agency in Kolkata.

The posters on the walls are varied in design, content and in presentation. Some of these warn the voters, urging them to be cautious in exercising their franchise and make no mistake by voting the rivals.

Others gently woo the electorate to cast their ballots in their favour. The contents range from very mundane to the latest scam, from kickbacks in Bofors gun deal to the "Feel Good" campaign of the BJP government from sarcastic cartoons to a collage of government misdeeds.

In West Bengal, the wall posters of the ruling Marxists are generally painted with bright red, keeping in tune with the colour of the party flag while that of the main Opposition party Trinamool Congress and the Indian National Congress are in green, white and saffron – the colour of India's national flag.

The quality of the paints varies from ordinary to costly acrylic and even fluorescent. Queries showed that majority of these wall posters are painted by hired commercial artists or party cadres but there are the special ones that are done up with professional artists even from the Government Art College.

Uttam Baroi, a student of the government art college in Kolkata for instance, said: "Yes, many of our students take up assignments from political parties for painting graffiti or writing decorative slogans on the walls. Unlike other wall posters those done by our students obviously have a creative and aesthetic dimension added to it. Sometimes we are forced to do it free of cost but mostly the jobs are taken on contract against payments."

It could be gathered that each contestant from major political outfits in West Bengal like the Congress or the Trinamool Congress or the Communist Party of India (Marxist) spends anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 100,000 on such wall writings and graffiti. The expenses include cost of colour, gum and adhesive, paint brush and payments to the artists.

However, in the past several elections, political parties in West Bengal have had a running battle with the Election Commission of India (EC) for violating the model code of conduct by polluting the walls of government buildings and premises. The EC has a blanket ban on writing political posters on the walls of government owned buildings and offices.

The former Chief Election Commissioner of India, T.N. Seshan made it a point that the ban is followed in letter and spirit. But after he quit, political outfits in Bengal once again got back to their habit and bounced back to capture the walls. But yet again the EC interfered and in the past two elections in 1998 and 1999, the Commission took the help of the state police to wipe off posters and wall writings at government premises.

The charges incurred by the police for such clean up operations were raised from the particular candidate for whom the walls were used. Even in case of individual households, the EC rule is to seek a no objection letter from the house owner before a particular political party uses his premises. But the rule is followed more in violation.

In this election there has not been a major row so far. But instances of violations are there and state election officials seem to ignore. But the writing on Kolkata walls are loud and clear – 'Old habits die hard. Long live Kolkata walls, Long live the graffiti,' says a communist cadre.