TMC using cartoon graffiti to woo voters in Rashbehari

Rashbehari Assembly constituency is different from rest of the state in terms of wall graffiti. The person behind this change is a Trinamool Congress candidate from the constituency of Sovandeb Chattopadhyay. He believes that use of cartoon characters in wall graffiti instead of the usual political ones attracts more people.

In the constituency, wall graffiti with figures of popular cartoon characters including Handa Bhoda, Nonte Fonte and many others will be part of election campaign.

Ahead of elections, wall graffiti has always caused trouble. Political parties often allege their counterparts of drawing wall graffiti’s against the will of the house owners.

At the same time people also get bored seeing the usual political wall graffiti with symbols of political parties and name of the candidates.

But the picture is completely different in Rashbehari. Here, a different approach is followed to spread the message among people. It has been appreciated by the residents of the area.

Besides the all-time favourite characters, figures of Chota Bheem, Motu and Patlu are also getting space in the wall graffiti.

Chattopadhyay had introduced cartoon characters in 1998 election campaigns and it has continued since then.

“Everybody knows that Chattopadhyay is contesting the election as a Trinamool Congress candidate. So it is always better to paint cartoon characters instead of writing the same thing all over the area. 

“It attracts people of all ages and help in wooing voters,” said Manisha Sen, a resident of area, adding that they had been seeing graffiti’s for the past few years and all the candidates should follow the same method instead of using the usual political wall graffiti.  

She further said that such graphics attract crowd even after the election is over therefore, no one stops the party workers in painting them.  

Chattopadhyay said: “It would have been much better if all the political parties took the same decision of campaigning through such graffiti. It is an environment friendly technique as there is no visual pollution. The step to use characters from different cartoons and comics in wall graffiti makes the city more beautiful.”