Pink Floyd has dropped the guitar and picked up the hammer and sickle for Election 2009.

Or that’s what the CPM seems to be telling its target audience as it strikes a different chord through its outdoor communication in the battle for eyeballs.

“Normally I barely glance at political billboards but this one on the EM Bypass was different. The artwork on the CPM flex was the definitive image of The Division Bell, Pink Floyd’s final studio album in 1994. I was stunned,” said young keyboard player Indranil Bhattacharya.

Pink Floyd, the English rock band formed in 1965 by art students Nick Mason and Roger Waters, is one of the most successful of all time, having sold over 210 million albums worldwide.

“I wouldn’t mind voting for a party that listens to classic rock’n’roll! Floyd imagery for a poll campaign is cool,” said vocalist Neel Adhikari.

That’s precisely the response that the brains behind the Floyd-ian flex — which presents a timeline of the “two-faced” Trinamul’s poll alliances in every election since 1998 — was hoping for.

“The aim was to tell people about the different faces of the Trinamul. By using the Pink Floyd album cover, we wanted to make it appealing to the English-speaking urban audience,” said a comrade in his early thirties.

Under the aegis of the agitation and propaganda sub-committee of CPM’s Calcutta district committee, he is one among a band of young comrades behind the Floyd flavour to the party’s poll campaign.

The inspiration is unmissable — Stone Heads by English graphic designer Storm Thorgerson for the artwork of The Division Bell .

“A diversified team is working on the poll communication to make the messages meaningful and attractive to different sections of society,” said CPM leader Manab Mukherjee, a key member of the party’s propaganda team.

From the traditional ones with faces of people joining political rallies with hammer and sickle to billboards loaded with facts, from symbolic flexes on the exit of Nano to billboards with catchy Floyd-inspired artwork, the CPM is seeking an equal music.

“The use of language also varies,” said a party source. So, along with quasi-poetic expressions — Aamra swapno-o buni (we also weave dreams), accompanying a picture of self-help group weavers — the comrades have also used colloquial expressions — jot, phot... ekchot henshe ni (alliance, forget it… let’s have a laugh) on a canvas with three dolls.

Many party leaders are not aware of the Floyd connection to the campaign, but they are happy with the buzz about the billboards. “The commonality with the Pink Floyd album cover was incidental. If it’s working, we consider it successful,” said Mukherjee.

Floyd is the right choice for Calcutta, said the Someplace Else gang. “It is appropriate because the band has always made telling and cutting-edge social comments,” said veteran drummer Nondon Bagchi, for whom Coming back to life from The Division Bell is a must-play number at any gig by his band Hip Pocket in town. “So someone in the CPM’s think tank knows his onions,” smiled Nondon.

The CPM’s GenX think tank is unlikely to have tuned in to Animals, the 1977 album that took off from George Orwell’s Animal Farm but turned it into a critique of the excesses of capitalism with dogs as businessmen, sheep as the helpless underclass, and pigs as tyrannical leaders.

Calcutta has long been Floyd city, from college fests to crowded pubs. In 2007, when former Floyd bassist Roger Waters drew a crowd of over 35,000 people at Mumbai’s Bandra-Kurla complex, a large contingent of budding and professional musicians in that crowd was from Calcutta.

“Who would have known that Pink Floyd would finally come to town riding a CPM billboard?” said vocalist Neel. “But that’s the greatness of Pink Floyd, creating images not only in their music but also in their album art; art that can be used even in Bengal politics.”