EC announces campaigning time slot on AIR and DD

New Delhi, Oct 24 (UNI) The Election Commission in consultation with the Prasar Bharti Corporation has finalised the time slot allotment schedule for election campaigning by recognised National and State parties of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh on Doordarshan and All India Radio.

According to an EC notification issued here today, a base time of 45 minutes will be given to each of the parties, on the regional kendras of Doordarshan and AIR in the two states.

The National and the State parties will be treated at par for Assembly elections, it said.

The additional time to be allotted to the parties has been decided on their past performance during the Lok Sabha and Assembly elections in these States. In a single session of broadcast, no party will be allocated more than 15 minutes.

The period of broadcast and telecast will be between the last date of filing the nominations and will end two days before the date of poll.

There will be no telecast or broadcast during the 48 hours preceding the close of polls as per specific provisions of Representation of the People Act, 1951, the notification said.

The parties will be required to submit transcripts and recordings in advance.

The Prasar Bharati will organise a maximum of two discussions or debate on the kendra/station of DD/AIR where each party could nominate one representative.

Interestingly, as there are no recognised state political parties in these two states, the time slot is being distributed among the six recognised national political parties.

These are Bahujan Samaj Party, Bharatiya Janata Party, Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist), Indian National Congress and Nationalist Congress Party.

According to the time slot distribution chart, BJP gets maximum number of 37 slots in Gujarat each of five minutes duration for broadcast/telecast. This is followed by Congress with 33 slots, BSP with 10 slots, NCP with 10 slots, CPI and CPI(M) with 9 slots.

In the case of Himachal Pradesh, Congress gets the highest number of 38 each of five minutes duration followed by BJP with 33, BSP 10, CPI, CPI(M) and NCP with 9 time slots each.

UNI