Credited with giving a host of top politicians, including seven prime ministers, Allahabad (now Prayagraj) has always been a politically significant centre.

While elections may be an all out war for politicians, locals celebrate it as a festival. The catchphrase ‘writing on the wall’ gets a literal meaning here with rivals indulging in a banner and poster war ahead of elections.

The tradition, which existed here even during ‘60s and ‘70s, gathered pace around 1984 when Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan defeated political heavyweight HN Bahuguna.

Each and every message that makes it to banners are heavily loaded and catchy — thanks to the rich literary background of the people associated with politicians.

Political analyst and former professor of political science at Allahabad University Prof MP Dube says: “Post-Independence, initial elections were party and personality-based. Everyone knew Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri and other leaders and so they relied more on traditional forms of campaigning.” “However, slowly anti-Congress slogans started to make their presence felt as wall graffiti, banners and hoardings in the mid-70s. In a jibe against vasectomy surgeries promoted during the Emergency to control population, slogans like ‘Zameen gai chakbandi mein, makan gaya hadbandi mein; Dwar khadi aurat chillaye, mera marad gaya nasbandi mein’ started finding place in banners,” he says.

Dube says another slogan on posters that attracted many eye-balls here in the 60s was ’Is ‘deepak’ mein tel nahi, sarkar banana khel nahi’ that Congress came out against Jan Sangh whose symbol was a ‘deepak’ (earthen lamp).

“In 1984, when Bachchan was nominated as a Congress candidate from Allahabad, the city saw a sudden spurt in banners and posters. Amitabh’s favourite dialogue seeking vote ‘main shoonya hoon’ (I am a zero) found its place on many posters of the time and struck a chord with the common voters as he was contesting against former UP CM HN Bahuguna. He was made fun of by many analysts of the time as a flyweight taking on a heavyweight,” says Prof Yogeshwar Tiwari of the Allahabad University.

“A banner that created quite a stir in 1984 was ‘Dal badloo phansa shikanje mein, mohar lagegi panje mein’ which took a dig at HN Bahuguna’s history of changing political parties,” recalls old-timers like Sarita Malaviya, a 75-year-old resident of Chowk locality.

RISE OF POSTER WAR

It was during the ‘90s that the poster war peaked with the last 10 years witnessing unprecedented use, courtesy young tech savvy leaders who combined printing technology with popularity of the Internet, says political analyst and director of GB Pant Social Science Institute Prof Badri Narayan.

“Every party, including the BJP, Congress, SP and even BSP, has embraced this trend, albeit some more than others. Even messages with bad language also started finding their way to these hoardings and posters,” he adds.

Former UPCC spokesman Abhay Awasthi says Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi was coming to address a rally at KP ground in 2019 he had put up a hoarding ‘Mata India ko sunne chalo KP College ke maidan mein’.

This hoarding was bitterly opposed by the BJP which opposed to Sonia being equated to ‘Mother India’ citing her foreign origin.

“Similarly, at the time 2013 Kumbh Mela, hoardings with messages ‘Yeh satya hai ki satta mein zehar hai, per vish peene wala hi Shiv hota hai’ also emerged in various parts of the city,” he says.

Over the years, young Congress leaders Haseeb Ahmad and Irshad Ullah have emerged as the men behind most of the posters going viral in the Sangam city.

In 2014, a series of posters and banners came up in Allahabad, courtesy these leaders, demanding that Priyanka Gandhi be brought to the fore.

Banners and posters with messages like ‘Congress ka moon, Priyanka is coming soon’ and ‘Shah ko agar dena hai maat, Priyanka ko saunp do Congress ka haath’.

Haseeb Ahmad was also behind a poster put up in 2016 that also created waves. It showed Priyanka Gandhi as Goddess Durga. It said that Priyanka is the ‘tigress of the country’ and ‘the voice of Hindustan’.

Ahmad and Dubey have also claimed that glimpses of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s charismatic personality could be seen in Priyanka and election campaign under Priyanka would bring unprecedented success to the party.

First Published: Mar 19, 2019 11:46 IST