Poster wars unleashed: Is it the calm before the storm?

The poll-bound Karnataka state has begun picking up stormy winds along with the summer heat that is just beginning to set in. As always, the posters are the best eye catchers available for the election engineers, they are creative, quick and impactful, and drive home a point almost definitely.

Look around in the cities in Karnataka and in the suburban areas the poster wars have just begun- it was the BJP that started the poster war. In almost all places in the state particularly in the towns and suburban areas posters have started appearing with the bold statement "Only BJP" the posters show Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, National president JP Nadda, State President Nalin Kumar Kateel.

In every tier II city in the state, they appeared in big numbers, according to the printers in 50 small towns over 500 posters have been pasted, these posters cannot be ripped off as it is done with a special process which sticks to the surface and forms a layer on the surface. In tier II cities over 100 posters have been pasted in each city.

Compared to the large budget blitzkrieg of BJP the Congress' counter comes in a much scaled down budget but effect wise, it has delivered the message say the observers.

The Congress party took up the poster war to the next level. The 'Kivi mele Huvva' posters also started appearing on Saturday morning with the caption "sakappa saaku- Kivi mele Huvva" the poster depicted a man wearing a marigold flower on his ears indicating the BJP was taking everybody for a ride. The Kivi Mele Huvva. Though the poster was small in size and could not match the large expensive tech-driven blitzkrieg of the BJP, the effect had a nullifying effect on the BJP poster.

It could not have been more impactful, it is catchy and catches the imagination of the viewer, to the point that it enthuses the viewer to quickly analyse the Bommai government's performance in the last few years," told a cab driver who has a parking slot near the Bikarnakatte-Maroli flyover ramp in suburban Mangalore.

However, both parties are planning to scale up their poster wars in the coming weeks, both BJP and Congress are however not risking their pre-poll image and getting criticised by civic activists for defacing the city.