New Delhi: Congress has been granted 190 minutes and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) 165 minutes of airtime on Doordarshan and All India Radio (AIR) as part of its scheme of State funding of political parties through free use of State-owned television and radio for campaigning in the coming general elections.

Under the scheme, six national parties and 45 regional parties have been allotted a total of 125 hours for telecast/broadcast over DD and AIR.

This also includes the 10 minutes telecasting/broadcasting time given to each regional party on regional satellite services channel of DD available to viewers across the whole country and the national hook-up of AIR, according to an Election Commission (EC) announcement.

Besides Congress and BJP, the four other national parties which have been made available the facility included Communist Party of India - Marxist (CPM) - 70 minutes, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) - 65 minutes, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP)- 55 minutes and Communist Party of India (CPI) - 50 minutes.

Each party shall be given Time Vouchers of denomination of five minutes equal to the total time allotted to it for telecast on DD and broadcast on AIR.

The date and time of the telecast/broadcast shall be predetermined, by lot, by the Prasar Bharati Corporation in consultation with the Commission.