Prashant Kishor, Sunil Kanugolu and more: Poll strategists turned campaign planners

From backroom boy to consultant: Poll strategist turns political war room campaign framer

New Delhi:

Excel sheets, slide presentations, targeted content sharing, investigative reporting, technology and endless data – these elements may have been missing from traditional Indian campaigning decades ago, but today, they drive winning strategies, public opinion Survey strategists believe these factors are significant. role in the transformation of the boy from behind the scenes.

As India heads into the polls, the stakes are higher than ever. Some say elections are run on emotion and are more art than science, but the rise of polling strategists suggests otherwise.

A poster child in the world of political consulting is Prashant Kishor, whose team helped Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party win big in the 2014 general election. Complete victory, winning 282 seats.

Mr. Kishore founded the nonprofit Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) in 2013. Two years later, the group changed its name to the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and has since strategized and campaigned for candidates in multiple elections.

In 2014, it launched some large-scale activities aimed at building the “Modi brand”, such as “Chai pe charcha” (dialogue over tea) and the Statue of Unity campaign; it also conducted the first 3D holographic rally with Prime Minister Modi in India, and Position him as Vikas Purush (Progressive).

Before launching the ‘padyatra’ in Bihar, Mr. Kishore had worked with many political parties to craft their campaigns, often successfully, with the stated aim of ushering in changes and promoting development in the backward state. different.

“What I suggested earlier to political parties and their leaders, now I communicate directly with people to discuss issues they should raise or build grassroots organizations,” he said in a recent interaction with PTI editors.

Sunil Kanugolu played a key role in the BJP’s campaign in several states and is now a member of the Congress’ 2024 task force. He is credited with the Karnataka victory and the Bharat Jodo Yatra.

Partha Pratim Das entered the consulting industry during his last project at IIM-Bangalore, where he advised Ajay Singh, who contested the 2013 Assembly elections from Jewargi, Karnataka. Singh subsequently defeated the sitting BJP MP by 36,700 votes.

Mr Das founded political strategy firm Chanakyya in November 2013 with Arindam Manna, and he and his team teamed up with Mr Singh again in 2018 to win the same seat.

“Social media was a new thing in 2009. Before that, voting patterns were based on family interests or trends. Previous politicians used to hang around, like LK Advani or Mulayam Singh Yadav. The new generation of politicians are not used to being on social media Activities on the media.

“They are more tech-savvy and mathematics has come into play… Previous surveys were not at this level… Now reversal or strategizing has become the need of the new generation in politics,” Mr Das said. told news agency PTI.

“The role of political consulting is increasing and people are ready to spend money… Parties and candidates have realized that they can no longer fight elections… They need WhatsApp content, personalized content, social media posts … They can’t do it alone. Today, political parties also have in-house consultants, with at least 60 parties and candidates seeking professional help,” he added.

However, Tushar Panchal, founder of War Room Strategies in 2016, said political consulting is not a new field and has been around for decades, but earlier the work was done in secret .

“For a long time, we didn’t like to be in the front, but we were the boys behind the scenes. This happened because of the publicity of PK. Earlier, people used to focus on secrecy and the strategists were often behind the scenes, but today everyone Everybody wants to be on the horse-drawn carriage that is going full steam ahead,” Mr. Panchal told PTI.

“Before, it wasn’t as fancy and glamorous as it is today. We used to be part of an advertising agency and not in a field defined as political strategy consulting. The work is not that different today, but the tools have changed,” he added.

Mr. Panchal explained that the consulting fee depends on the area that the consultant or agency handles for the party or candidate.

“The industry is very fragmented. Pricing varies from client to client. Our policy is not to work with individual candidates, only with political parties,” he said.

A political campaign typically takes months, and each strategist has a different approach to creating a campaign for their candidate, according to consultants.

“Typically, a strategist provides an end-to-end service to a politician or political party and begins work five to six months before an election.”

“They provide data services which include polling station data for each constituency, historical data on how the seat has witnessed shifts in voting patterns and on-the-ground surveys to understand the concerns of voters and then launch campaigns and provide advice to politicians and ground staff to implement Same measures,” said a spokesperson from a Gurgaon-based political consulting firm.

However, Pradeep Gupta, chairman and managing director of Axis My India, calls political consulting a new phenomenon.

“Previous elections were won and lost about the leaders… In the first elections, the leaders came from the freedom movement, they were the experts, they didn’t need to learn because they had been fighting… and the reasons for winning and losing came next It has been fixed for 15 years.

“So political consulting is a new phenomenon. Their role is to help candidates and parties figure out things they don’t know,” he told PTI.

Polling for the 543 Lok Sabha seats will be held in seven phases, with the first phase for 102 seats starting on April 19. Counting of votes will take place on June 4.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)