Behind every successful political party is a strategist.<\/p>\n
At one time Prashant Kishore achieved cult status for orchestrating big wins for the BJP through Chai pe Charcha discussions, and later JD(U)\u2019s Nitish Kumar. <\/p>\n
Now, meet his prot\u00e9g\u00e9 Robbin Sharrma, the strategist behind Telugu Desam Party\u2019s spectacular showing. <\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we picked the project in 2020, everyone said we are betting on a wrong project,\u201d says Sharrma of ShowTime Consulting (STC), who crafted the Chandrababu Naidu-led TDP\u2019s dramatic turnaround in Andhra Pradesh. <\/p>\n
Sharrma and some of his colleagues were earlier with Prashant Kishore\u2019s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) but broke away toform their own consultancy. <\/p>\n
The TDP was a difficult project, acknowledge Sharrma and his colleague Shantanu Singh. <\/p>\n
\n2-tier war room
\n<\/h5>\n
Sharrma curated a two-tier war room, which was headed by Singh. They said their approach was a departure from the traditional top-down thinking. <\/p>\n
The TDP strategy outpost consisted of a central command centre (CCC) in the city, and hundreds of field workers. The CCC brought office-bearers across 175 Assembly constituencies on a common platform, creating an extensively interconnected network. <\/p>\n
This network helped real-time issue identification and monitoring across the State, while shaping customised micro-strategies for every Assembly segment. <\/p>\n
The mandate from the client was clear: \u201cTo win the elections\u201d, and we had to deliver it, says Sharrma. <\/p>\n
\nReal-time data
\n<\/h5>\n
For the TDP, the STC professionals had to coordinate with a cadre of 1,400-plus individuals on the ground. <\/p>\n
The CCC was able to achieve real-time monitoring of customised outreach initiatives for specific target groups, including youth, women, SC\/ST communities, and BCs. It also identified and focussed on 14,61,200 fence-sitting voters. <\/p>\n
\u201cTo ensure effective operations, STC had picked a combination of State leads, zonal managers, data analysts, researchers and PR professionals from its team,\u201d Singh said. As a result of churning through all this data, the CCC was able to identify the discontent brewing against the Land Titling Act and turn it into a major narrative for the TDP closer to the elections. <\/p>\n
\nMeets & Yatras
\n<\/h5>\n
Chandrababu Naidu tore a copy of the Act during his Praja Galam meeting in Darsi, and asked people to speak up against its draconian provisions. <\/p>\n
The CCC not only helped the TDP run multiple campaigns simultaneously, but also ensured a seamless uniformity of narrative across each one of them. <\/p>\n
\u201cAn example of this is Nara Bhuvaneswari\u2019s Nijam Gelavali Yatra , which started off as a meeting to thank the people for their support after Nara Chandrababu Naidu\u2019s arrest. However, the campaign soon evolved into a State-wide condolence yatra after the CCC learnt that close to 200 people had succumbed to the shock of Naidu\u2019s arrest,\u201d members of STC said. <\/p>\n
On the use of the social media, Sharrma said that YouTube and Facebook were the tools used versus TV ads. <\/p>\n
Nothing succeeds like success, and just a few days after the result, Sharrma and his team are besieged by calls and enquiries. <\/p>\n
The Andhra Pradesh story will surely beget more sequels.<\/p>\n