Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP changes its colours this election season — to yellow and black
Politics

Arvind Kejriwal’s AAP changes its colours this election season — to yellow and black

AAP formally launched its campaign on 20 December with the slogan — ‘Achhe Beete Paanch Saal, Lage Raho Kejriwal’ & released its 5-year ‘report card’ four days later.

   
The hoarding with black as the background colour and the AAP's slogan in yellow, at ITO

The hoarding with black as the background colour and the AAP's slogan in yellow, at ITO | Photo: Manisha Mandal | ThePrint

New Delhi: Playing the national anthem at party events, black hoardings with slogans written in yellow and a revamped headquarters — these are some of the dominant features of Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party’s power-packed campaign for the upcoming Delhi assembly elections.

The man behind the campaign is election strategist Prashant Kishor, whose advocacy group Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) has been roped in by Kejriwal for the elections.

The party formally launched its campaign on 20 December with the slogan — ‘Achhe Beete Paanch Saal, Lage Raho Kejriwal’ and released ‘report card’ of the work done in the last five years four days later.

The dates for the elections haven’t been announced yet. The term for Delhi assembly ends on 14 February 2020.

Play of colours

A signature Kishore-designed campaign always focuses on colours and one cannot miss the play of colours in the AAP’s campaign — the party’s slogan is written in yellow on hoardings that have black as the background colour. Earlier, the AAP used white and blue.

Senior I-PAC officials told ThePrint that yellow and black will be the dominant colours for the AAP’s election campaign.

In order to break away from the blue-white colour scheme of the AAP, the focus has been given on black as the background colour of all campaign hoardings and posters, an I-PAC member said. 

“Kishor always wanted to make sure we use a colour that no other party has used so that the billboards stand out on the busy Delhi roads and that’s when black became the unanimous choice,” an AAP member said.

On the selection of yellow, party members say Kishor deliberately wanted to use the colour, even though all political parties want to avoid it as saffron, the colour of the ruling BJP, has shades of yellow. 

Party sources also said that the I-PAC team and AAP leaders considered yellow to be auspicious as it’s the colour of tilak and haldi, which are used during pujas, and, therefore, believed to bring good luck.

Another I-PAC member said yellow also hints at being “pluralist” and not “anti-Hindu”.

The colour-coded theme for the AAP campaign is in sync with I-PAC’s other campaigns in Bihar (blood red for Chief Minister Nitish Kumar) and Punjab (dark blue for CM Captain Amarinder Singh).

In the 2015 Bihar elections, Kishor used red as his idea was to use a strong basic colour that rural Bihar could relate to and, at the same time, a colour that could compete with the BJP’s vibrant saffron, said the second I-PAC member.

“In the 2017 Punjab elections, Kishor used dark blue, the traditional colour of the Sikh turban, to dismiss the idea that the Akali Dal had a monopoly over the Sikhs,” said the member.


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Revamped party office

The campaign also has the AAP decorating its headquarters at ITO with huge banners and hoardings, giving the drab and dull building a makeover ahead of the elections.

The party has also built a stage to host events at the headquarters and even put fancy chairs on it.

There’s a separate area for the media, too, where I-PAC volunteers move around with pamphlets.

AAP slogan & patriotic songs

The AAP’s slogan has also struck a chord with the voters.

Inspired by the 2006 Bollywood blockbuster ‘Lage Raho Munna Bhai’, the slogan smartly aims to convey a message of continuity. It gives the impression that people want Kejriwal to continue doing what he’s doing. 

It doesn’t end here.

Kejriwal’s speeches show a more conversational tone ever since I-PAC has come on board. The aim, I-PAC sources say, is to develop a dialogue with the voters to ensure that there is a trust factor.

Given the rising importance of “chest-thumping patriotism” in all election campaigns, the AAP is also seen experimenting with the same.

Playing patriotic songs such as ‘Rang De Basanti’ in the background during AAP events and even concluding such events with the national anthem are proof of that experiment.


Also read: The logic behind Lage Raho Kejriwal, Prashant Kishor’s slogan for the Aam Aadmi Party