Politicos book helicopter and airplane charter services to criss-cross country for election campaigns. Cost of hiring a helicopter ranges from Rs 45,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per hour IT'S election season and companies offering airplane and helicopter charter services never had it so good. Political parties have drawn up plans to hire helicopters and small aircrafts to enable their leaders to criss-cross the state. While the Congress in Maharashtra will be hiring as many as two helicopters and may go in for the third one if necessary, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to hire three helicopters and an aircraft for the use of its leaders. The Shiv Sena will finalise its plans for hiring copters next week, while Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leaders were reticent about the plans for hiring. However, sources said that the NCP leaders party supremo Sharad Pawar, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Supriya Sule are already using the services of a jet aircraft only between Mumbai and Delhi during the seat sharing talks, which were underway in the last few weeks. Besides, these helicopters and aircrafts being hired by the state units of the party, the high command of national parties will hire separate helicopters and aircrafts for its national leaders and prime ministerial candidate to go across the country. "The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has asked for 30 helicopters across the country, for which we are making arrangements," said Pradeep Thampy of Easy Jet Aviation Services. The cost of hiring a helicopter ranges from Rs 45,000 to Rs 1,00,000 for an hour. However, sources say the political parties may not show the actual cost on record and will prefer to show lower charges to ensure that the election expenses recorded are minimum. Congress (I) spokesperson Anant Gadgil said, "It is not a matter of luxury, but a matter of saving time for the important senior leaders, who have to rush from one place to the other. Chief Minister, ex-chief ministers, PCC president, central ministers and state ministers use the helicopters. Besides, they will be provided to national leaders for local logistics. But the main campaigners have to be decided." BJP state campaign in- charge Baba Patil said, "The helicopters will be used by state leaders such as Gopinath Munde, Nitin Gadkari, Vinod Tawde, Eknath Khadse and central leaders such as L K Advani, Narendra Modi, Sushma Swaraj and Rajnath Singh. The party leaders will use the helicopter or aircraft, according to convenience." "Sharad Pawar, Chhagan Bhujbal and RR Patil will be using the helicopters, but I don't have details," said Madan Bafna, NCP spokesperson. "We will decide upon the hiring of helicopters and aircrafts next week," Shiv Sena secretary Anil Desai said. Campaigns and rallies in Maharashtra Congress: Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are scheduled to address around eight meetings each in the state BJP: Prime Ministerial candidate LK Advani is scheduled to address as many as seven to eight rallies in the state during the first phase of the electioneering. Advani will cover at least 18 out of the 48 constituencies in the state What they're flying According to sources, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will use a Falcon 2000 type luxury jet and a chopper. She will make her first trip to Hubli on March 23. The chopper, which is twin engined for safety reasons, will be used to fly to areas which do not have a full-fledged runaway. According to sources, Narayan Rane has made a request for a helicopter to the MPCC to tour the Konkan region next week. MRCC president Kripashankar Singh is also understood to be using the services of an aircraft, but that is not part of the campaign. NCP chief Sharad Pawar, Union Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel and Supriya Sule are already using the services of a jet aircraft,u00a0 between Mumbai and Delhi

Carter Road stretch on watch

Politicos book helicopter and airplane charter services to criss-cross country for election campaigns. Cost of hiring a helicopter ranges from Rs 45,000 to Rs 1,00,000 per hour 

Busy season for choppers

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