| Summary/Abstract |
The paper engages with the world of outdoor election campaign materials (posters, banners and billboards) and their ways of establishing developmental truths during India’s general election of 2019. Offering a content analysis as well as their discursive production, the paper seeks to understand how these materials commissioned by the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are loaded with development metaphors even while differing from each other in the conception and delivery of development. Contrary to the commonly held belief that posters and banners are the prehistory of election campaigning, it is proposed that they are more democratic and participatory, and so a treasure trove of developmental meaning-making. Going beyond the delivery of messages through the textual and pictorial elements of visual materials, it is also proposed that their presence and abundance signify in ways not easily appreciated.
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