Rally Mukt Election
The Election Commission has extended its ban on physical rallies and roadshows until 22nd January. While lifting this ban is contingent on the COVID situation, political parties across the five poll-bound states are left with a shortage of ideas to fill this gap. The importance of such large-scale spectacular events for an election campaign can be understood by looking at the 2019 Lok Sabha election. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi addressed over 140 rallies each, alongside 4 and 8 roadshows respectively. The Prime Minister himself covered over 1.5 lakh kilometers addressing 1.5 crore people across the country 1 . To this effect, large amounts of money too are spent. BJP alone spent around 200 crores on rallies and processions, accounting for 17% of its total election expenditure 2 . However, the Lokniti CSDS post-poll survey revealed that 75% of voters denied attending any political meeting, rally, or procession during the 2019 Lok Sabha elections 3 . An obvious quest