Balangir, April 6: People of west Odisha are known for their love for the Rangabati song. Now, candidates of various political parties here are using the song and other folk tunes to attract voters.

The Balangir Assembly and parliamentary constituency candidates have mostly chosen traditional Sambalpuri music to garner votes. Be it in the urban areas or in remote villages, one can hear the campaign vehicles blaring out music as they roll on. The major parties in the fray have selected some catchy Sambalpuri tunes to attract voters.

They have tweaked the lyrics to make it poll-worthy and have recorded the songs in the voice of local artistes. The most popular songs that doing the round are the evergreen Rangabati, Rasarkeli and Jaaiphula songs.

The Congress campaign vehicles play many versions of the 1980s hit Rangabati song to highlight issues of Balangir, tell about the candidate and also to put forth achievements of the Congress-led UPA government.

The BJD is mostly banking on Rasarkeli and Jaiphula by reworking the lyrics of the songs. Sanat Mishra, who organises campaign for the BJD, said that response of the voters to local and traditional music had been very impressive. “Traditional songs in Sambalpuri language have been very useful as people easily accept them. What we do is get the song rewritten to suit the party’s campaign strategy. It is then recorded in the voice of a local artiste. Often it is also written and sung by party workers, but professionals are also hired for the job,” he said.

Only the Aam Admi Party (AAP) is an exception. It is using Hindi patriotic songs in their campaign.

Lokanath Sahu, a poll enthusiast, said it was interesting to see the way the parties were using music in the campaign. “Using music in poll campaign is not new, but this time it is being used extensively by all the major parties,” he said.