JSP candidate hires 15 pick-up vans for campaign

Thota Chandrasekhar from Guntur West hopes to reverse 2 successive losses

A refurbished pick-up van engaged for poll campaign by JSP candidate Thota Chandrasekhar, in Guntur.

With less than a month to go for the elections, candidates are coming up with innovative methods to connect with voters across their constituency.

In Guntur, Thota Chandrasekhar, a former IAS officer who is contesting the Assembly elections from the Guntur West constituency on a Jana Sena Party ticket, has roped in 15 refurbished pick-up vans to reach out to the maximum number of voters.

Drawing attention

While Dr. Chandrasekhar personally goes out on campaigns to meet voters in the mornings and evenings, the pick-up trucks drive through the constituency all day, generating interest among people and familiarising voters with his presence.

The vehicles are painted in the JSP colours, and are accompanied by party workers who distribute pamphlets among the public. Some workers also carry laptops in order to help people know the status of their voter card or to help new voters submit a fresh application for obtaining a voter card.

Highly detailed

Equipped with LED screens beaming speeches of party president Pawan Kalyan and images of Dr. Chandrasekhar, the vehicles sport a large image of the party symbol (a glass), an inflated balloon in the shape of a gas cylinder (a poll promise made by the party to give free gas connections to BPL families), and cut-outs of Pawan Kalyan and Dr. Chandrasekhara Rao on either side.

The vehicles are also fitted with audio-visual systems playing popular songs of the party and a ‘teen maar’ band adding fizz to the campaign.

Dr. Chandrasekhara Rao is contesting his third election in a row, after having lost two successive elections in a row: first in 2009, as an aspirant from the Guntur Lok Sabha seat, and again in 2014, when he lost from Eluru contesting from the YSR Congress Party.