Ranchi, March 16: Have a political message? Say it with balloons and bindis.

National political parties are stocking up on goodies and poll merchandise as campaigning intensifies. While the BJP office in the capital has placed orders for 60 balloons that will bear the party name and symbol (priced at Rs 16,000 each), the Congress headquarters here received two truckloads of poll articles — flags, banners, caps and bindis — from the party’s central office in New Delhi today.

The Congress is expected to get a huge number of CDs and cassettes ready with their version of Jai Ho — adapted from the soundtrack of Slumdog Millionaire. The Congress version recounts the glory of previous leaders like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi and also highlights future plans. Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh launched this version in New Delhi recently.

The newly appointed Congress spokesperson Ravindra Singh said all poll articles would be sent to various Lok Sabha constituencies. Women workers would sport bindis while men would wear caps — both bearing the party symbol — while campaigning.

BJP’s balloon campaign is hassle-free, sources said. It is an easy-to-carry device for campaigning in rural areas. “The BJP has used balloons during the recent poll campaign of party’s prime ministerial candidate L.K. Advani in Bhopal. It was quite a hit there. I am expecting orders from the Congress and RJD, too,” said Satyendra Kumar, a representative of Ad Vision that has prepared the balloons.

Parties are also detailing their campaigns by adding local flavour. Cut-outs and posters of candidates, including those of regional political parties such as Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (Democratic), among others, are being prepared with equal fervor.

“So far, we have received orders to prepare election vans for Ravindra Pandey, the BJP candidate from Giridih,” Chand Khan of city-based advertisement agency Design.com said.