Ever since BJP leader Pramod Mahajan and fellow strate-gist Sudhanshu Mittal rede-fined electioneering in India with their ‘India Shining’ campaign in the 2004 Lok Sabha elections, poll campaigns in the country have never been the same.
A tectonic shift in electioneering came with the emergence of ‘backroom boys’—a new breed of poll strategists who are changing not just India’s poll landscape but its political ecosystem as well. If the conservative politician banks on traditional ways of knowing the popular pulse, the poll strategist’s biggest weapon is data. It was his emphasis on data-crunching that helped election strategist Prashant Kishor seal poll victories for various political clients— the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the Janata Dal (United) in the 2015 and 2020 Bihar assembly polls, YSR Congress in the 2019 Andhra Pradesh elections, and the DMK in the 2021 Tamil Nadu polls, to name a few.
Advocacy groups like Kishor’s I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) and Sunil Kanugolu’s Mindshare Analytics continue to redefine election campaigns. As India gears up for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the moves of backroom strategists like Kishor and Kanugolu are drawing a lot of attention.
Poll strategists have always been there in Indian politics, but they used to work in silos—until 2014, when all aspects of electioneering were brought under a single roof, with one person overseeing the end-to-end process. Earlier, it was strategists from within the party—such as Mahajan and Arun Jaitley in the BJP, Jairam Ramesh and Ahmed Patel in the Congress—who assumed the role of the war-room manager. But, with the advent of social media and related technologies, politicians began seeking outside help.
This story is from the May 15, 2022 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 15, 2022 edition of THE WEEK.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
AI & I
Through her book Code Dependent—shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction—Madhumita Murgia gives voice to the voiceless multitudes impacted by artificial intelligence
Hair force
Sheetal Mallar, in her photobook Braided, uses hair as a metaphor to tell a story that is personal yet universal
The art of political protest
The past doesn’t always remain in the past. Sometimes, it emerges in the present, reminding us about the universality and repetitiveness of the human experience. Berlin’s George Grosz Museum, a tiny gem, is a startling reminder that modern political and social ills are not modern. Grosz lived through World Wars I and II, shining a torch into the heart of darkness in high-ranking men and women—who were complicit in the collapse of the world as they knew it.
DIVERSITY IN UNITY
THE SOUTH ASIAN COMMUNITY IN THE US HAS SEVERAL THINGS IN COMMON, BUT WHEN IT COMES TO THE UPCOMING ELECTIONS, THERE ARE WIDELY DIFFERING OPINIONS AND FEELINGS
RED SHOOTS RISING
CPI(M) hopes its fiery young candidates will usher in a left renaissance in West Bengal
BATTLE OF THE BRAINS
Top poll strategists are engaged in a proxy war in Andhra Pradesh
Anupamaa's whisper to Rupali Ganguly
I have been a fan of the television drama series, Anupamaa, right from the very start. The number one Hindi TV serial in the country for almost four years now, it tells the story of simple Ahmedabad housewife, Anupamaa, who loved her husband, children, and in-laws, and found her happiness exclusively in theirs.
ROYAL CHALLENGE
Two descendants of Chhatrapati Shivaji are in the fray
AJIT PAWAR'S NCP WILL BE WIPED OUT
INTERVIEW - PRITHVIRAJ CHAVAN, CONGRESS LEADER AND FORMER CHIEF MINISTER
HEIR-BORNE BATTLE
Modi’s acceptability remains high even where voters find the BJP’s quest for power at any cost offensive, but the Maha Vikas Aghadi clearly has its tail up. The mood and moves on the ground...
