Jhapa, June 2

Political parties in Jhapa have picked music as a campaigning tool in the run up to the upcoming second phase of civic polls.

Hukumsingh Rai, Nepali Congress’s candidate for chair of Kamal Rural Municipality, said his party had changed the way it conducted publicity campaigns.

He said, “Earlier, parties used printed materials such as posters and pamphlets, held rallies and public meetings for poll publicity. As times have changed, such style of campaigning is no longer relevant,” he said.

NC’s candidate for the post of deputy mayor of Damak Municipality, Regina Bhattarai, said, “Audio-visual content with promotional songs and parodies are a lot more effective these days.” On his part, CPN-MC mayoral candidate for the same municipality, Rawatraj Puri, also said his party had prioritised publicity through music and songs.

Meanwhile, the changed trend in election publicity has also brought good incentives to the local recording studios as they are making a good buck by catering to political parties.