Rahul Gandhi likely to pad up during IPL slam bang

NEW DELHI: Political parties, especially the Congress and its youth icon Rahul Gandhi, are pushing to get a piece of the biggest television show round the corner���the Indian Premier League (IPL).

The Congress, which has roped in the country���s biggest media-buying house Group M-owned Mindshare to buy air-time to advertise as a run-up to the elections, is very keen to sign a big advertising deal with IPL broadcaster Sony Entertainment���s SET Max channel.

According to a ruling by the IPL committee inked some time back, political parties can���t advertise on IPL, but an official closely involved with the developments told ET: ���Since there is a lot of pressure from political parties to lift the ruling, the IPL committee is relooking at this clause.���

Since now IPL seems well in place despite the home ministry���s original concerns on security, the pressure on the IPL committee to alter its rule is gaining ground.

It is learnt that the Congress wants to spend about Rs 20-25 crore for advertising on SET Max during the IPL alone, which could either be in the form of a bulk ad deal or through spot buys. The party���s total communication spend is about Rs 150-180 crore and it has assigned two agencies���JWT and Crayons���for its communication.

Two officials close to the developments told ET: ���The Congress wants to advertise heavily on IPL featuring Rahul Gandhi and other Youth Congress members. They want to project their party as a brand, and since IPL���s TRPs broke records last year, the party believes it���s an ideal platform to reach out to the electorate. They are just waiting to get a clear picture from the IPL management to finalise plans.��� IPL CEO Sundar Raman could not be reached for comments despite repeated attempts.

Sony Entertainment could earn Rs 50-60 crore from election-based advertising by all political parties put together. A Sony official, who did not want to be identified, said: ���We are obviously keen to block advertising deals with interested political parties���it would provide incremental revenues at a time when regular advertisers are negotiating hard to extract the most cost-effective ad deals.���