A.P. spotlight | In poll position for extra earnings Premium

Chintala Arjun transforms SUVs into campaign vehicles, earning up to ₹30,000 each during the Lok Sabha elections in Andhra Pradesh.

As the pulse of political activity quickens ahead of the Lok Sabha elections, 35-year-old Chintala Arjun quietly toils away in a garage at Auto Nagar near Gajuwaka in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. He meticulously converts high-end SUVs into election campaigning vehicles, adding open-top stands and installing sound systems, lights and other accessories.

“I usually make ₹10,000 to ₹15,000 a month. However, for working on campaigning vehicles, I earn around ₹30,000 for each,” says a beaming Arjun, adding, “The elections are a big boost to our business. I am working round the clock to complete the orders within a week.”

The skillset of people like Arjun is in high demand as parties vie for attention on the campaign trail. Over the past few weeks, he has worked on more than a dozen vehicles for leaders of the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP), Telugu Desam Party (TDP) and its ally, the Jana Sena Party (JSP).

Arjun is one of the 15 workers employed by J. Srinivas, owner of SV Engineering Works at Auto Nagar, who has over 20 orders for customised vehicles. Some of the workers hail from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and specialise in modifying vehicles.

“Typically, we specialise in customising food trucks. But since the previous election season, we ventured into the business of customising campaign vehicles,” explains Srinivas. “During the 2019 elections, we customised around 40 vehicles, each of which is designed to comfortably accommodate 25 to 30 people. The price ranges between ₹3.5 lakh and ₹6 lakh per vehicle, depending on the quality of speakers, generator and lights used,” he adds.

Currently, Srinivas is busy designing campaign vehicles for local MPs and MLAs. Alongside, he has undertaken a project to design a bus for an MP. In the run-up to the 2019 elections, he had modified a ‘bus caravan’, which was used by senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for his campaigning in Andhra Pradesh. The price for customised buses ranges from ₹6 lakh to ₹20 lakh.

The trend of deploying unique campaigning vehicles started in Andhra Pradesh during the 1980s by former chief minister and TDP founder N.T. Rama Rao, says senior political analyst P. Adinarayana Reddy. He toured the entire state on a bus christened ‘Chaitanya Radham’.