Demonetisation: Cash crunch may ruin SP, BSP’s plans to hire choppers for UP poll campaign

NEW DELHI: The helicopter view of politics after demonetisation — cash crunch has stalled Samajwadi Party’s and Bahujan Samaj Party’s plans to hire single-engine choppers for election campaign in Uttar Pradesh.

“Three days after the announcement of demonetisation, both SP and BSP informed that they would put on hold negotiations to hire single-engine helicopters,” said a person familiar with the matter who did not want to be identified because he is not authorised to speak to the media about charters.

Bharatiya Janata Party and Congress have not indicated any change in their plans and are going ahead with hiring these helicopters, said the person, who is an industry official.

PM Narendra Modi announced the scrapping of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes on November 8 as part of an effort to combat unaccounted income and counterfeit currency and encourage cashless transactions.

Studies say political parties make up to 40% of their payments in cash and are now expected to switch to cheques.

BSP spokesperson Sudhindra Bhadoria said he is not aware of the logistics of hiring helicopters by his party. SP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia did not respond to text messages and phone calls seeking comment.

Hiring a single-engine helicopter would cost between Rs 1.25 lakh and Rs 1.75 lakh per hour of flying and the rate for a twin-engine helicopter is up to Rs 2.5 lakh per hour.

With single-engine helicopter bookings on hold, there may be fewer flights during campaigning for the elections in Uttar Pradesh, where the term of the assembly ends in May.

“UP elections have always been the biggest state elections in India, where we get to see maximum action leading to a lot of flight bookings. A hold now would mean lesser flights during the elections this time,” the person said.

DEMAND FOR BIG CHOPPERS
While demonetisation may have hit demand for smaller helicopters, which are typically hired closer to election time, it hasn’t affected bookings for larger choppers, which are still in demand.

Political parties have not cancelled any bookings of twin-engine helicopters hired for the UP elections, the person said.

“There are limited twin-engine helicopters in the country and no political party would take the risk of not hiring them in advance or they might not get any for elections,” he said.

Comparatively, there is better availability of single-engine helicopters in India and political parties can hire them at the last moment too.

“Single-engine helicopters are used by the second line of leadership in any party, who will either have to fly with senior leaders or use other means to commute,” said the industry official.

ET had reported on August 25 that BJP was negotiating for up to 12 twin-engine helicopters and the ruling SP six. Congress was looking at hiring four such helicopters and BSP three while Apna Dal, a member of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, is likely to hire one.

The person, however, added that demonetisation would mean that smaller political parties would not hire any helicopters.