AAP appoints private PR firm for image building

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which has been facing criticism from the political opponents in Delhi over its style of functioning and fondness for advertisements, has now sought professional help for image building and media management. The Delhi Government has appointed Public Relations firm Perfect Relations as its "media consultant". Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's media advisor, Arunodya Prakash, confirmed the same to ANI. Perfect Relations was established and co-founded in 1992 in Delhi by image consultants and media commentators Dilip Cherian and Bobby Kewalramani. The cost of hiring the consultant will be met from within the Rs. 200 crore allocations for the department in the 2016-17 budget. This includes money already spent and to be spent on advertisements this fiscal. There has, however, been no official confirmation in this regard from the PR agency. The AAP Government had last year set aside Rs. 526 crore for information and publicity in the 2015-16 budget, drawing severe criticism from both the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress. Earlier, Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had assailed the AAP Government, saying the government is using advertising funds to manipulate the media. "While 'friendly' media is being given advertisements, media houses which are critical of the AAP government are being denied ad revenue," Jailtey had said in an interview. Last year, 'Shabdarth' an internal ad release agency was set up by the Delhi Government to take over the process of releasing advertisements through private agencies.