Parties say they have no funds -- but are hiring aircraft.

There's a price that political parties have to pay for their high-flying leaders. And it's being calculated in crores of rupees as they make a beeline to hire aircraft and helicopters to canvass for the elections. In the past, leaders like Indira Gandhi, V.P. Singh, Chandra Shekhar, P.V. Narasimha Rao, Rajiv Gandhi and H.D. Deve Gowda used jet aircraft and helicopters to campaign for their parties. This year is no different: L.K. Advani, A.B. Vajpayee, Sonia Gandhi, Sitaram Kesri, Laloo Prasad Yadav, Bal Thackeray and Mulayam Singh Yadav are already flying around, while Mayawati, Kanshi Ram, N. Chandrababu Naidu, M. Karunanidhi, Lakshmi Parvati and Bhairon Singh Shekhawat are awaiting their turn.

Enthused by the early success of her election campaign, Sonia wanted a 35-seater jet from February 1 to accommodate her private secretary V. George, the SPG team and select politicians and mediapersons who accompany her. But the move had to be abandoned as no private airline has a 35-seater. Moreover, it would have cost the Congress Rs 5 lakh per flying hour to hire one, compared to Rs 1.5 lakh an hour for a seven-seater.

Parties have learnt to their dismay that seven-seaters are in short supply. When told that even the seven-seater owned by Nusli Wadia's Megaport would not be available after February 5 as it has been booked by the BJP, the Congress party managers wasted no time in reserving it for Sonia till then. Congress President Sitaram Kesri would have used it -- at a cost of more than Rs 5 lakh an hour -- for his scheduled trip to Ranchi on January 21, but the aircraft could not take off due to technical snags.

The cash-strapped Congress could have sought the services of partyman Kamal Nath's Span Airways. But under the Election Commission's (EC) new rules, Span's three planes cannot be used by either Nath or his party. So the Congress decided to hire aircraft only for Sonia and Kesri. In fact, what's thwarting all the parties is the stringent monitoring by the EC, which has directed candidates to pay private airlines by cheque in advance whenever they hire aircraft.

In the 1991 elections, Rajiv Gandhi used two C-90 aircraft and three helicopters, which friend and party member Captain Satish Sharma arranged through the Delhi Flying Club. And the BJP hired two 16-seater Dakotas and a three-seater Bonanza from the Singhanias. This time, the BJP has at its command 15 aircraft, and the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) two each. Some United Front constituents are planning to use choppers. According to EC guidelines, other than the prime minister, no leader can use state aircraft during the election period (January 1 to March 15). "Even the prime minister is barred from using state aircraft for electioneering," says K.R. Prasad, secretary, EC.

The prevailing economic crunch has severely handicapped the parties in their quest for funds. Nevertheless, private airline companies can expect good business in the run-up to the elections. Pawan Hans, for instance, has a number of parties queuing up for its rate-card. Says a company spokesperson: "We are hiring out choppers, three-seaters and six-seaters. The cost will range between Rs 15,000 and Rs 1 lakh an hour."

Mesco's, which clocked 200 hours during the last elections, is setting aside 10 aircraft for this year's campaigning. The company's Managing Director Rita Singh is friendly with the SP, the BSP and the Congress, on whose ticket she contested unsuccessfully in 1996. She hopes that Mesco's will do roaring business in the next two months. So do other private airline companies which expect business to quadruple from the 50-hours-a-day that it is at present.

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