State polls: Plane charters lose out to FB, Google as campaigns go digital

Flight charter companies have been badly hit by bans on physical rallies even as Big Tech eyes greater footfalls from digital political campaigns

The Election Commission of India’s (ECI's) decision to extend the ban on mass rallies till January 22 is reshaping the contours of poll canvassing in ways hitherto unseen. In 2017, when the states of Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Manipur, Goa, Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh had legislative assembly elections, India’s two biggest parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress splurged crores on chartering private planes and hiring media agencies to place ads in newspapers, radio and TV. Five years later, the same states are on the verge of yet another election. But the rules of the game may have