A South Delhi-based public relations agency, The Storytellers, has acquired its first politician client with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Ramesh Bidhuri recently enlisting its services to fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. He is the second BJP politician after East Delhi candidate Maheish Girri to hire a PR agency to spread his message to voters, with barely three weeks remaining for the polls.
While Mr. Bidhuri, an influential Gujjar leader, said “I cannot go to every corner of the constituency, so this will be a good way to transmit the message through the media to voters,” the Aam Aadmi Party candidate from South Delhi, Colonel (retd.) Devinder Sehrawat is all set to conduct a “recce” of each of the 10 Assembly segments in his constituency. He has packed his bags to spend two nights in each area to study every problem and come up with a consolidated manifesto.
Mr. Bidhuri, who is the sitting MLA from Tughlakabad, officially entered the fray last week to contest for a seat in Parliament. He has narrowed in on a seven-point agenda that includes building new colleges, a 200-bed hospital and regularising unauthorised colonies. “The idea is to help him reach out to the masses,” said The Storytellers managing director Nikhil Kumar.
“Since he has filed his nomination papers, we will come up with a strategy after which the next 20 days will be hardcore campaigning. Our aim is to send the message out to the people so they can think and decide on the most suitable person to vote for,” he added.
Meanwhile, Col. Sehrawat’s bags are packed with Badarpur being his first stop. “I will eat, live and sleep in each constituency and use and understand every facility …” he said. “I want to form my own consolidated manifesto after experiencing everything first-hand. Like we learn in the Army, we should go check out every place by ourselves. Do a recce,” said the former commando trainer.
Though the BJP won seven out of 10 seats of South Delhi and the AAP walked away with only three in the 2013 Assembly polls, Col. Sehrawat said these elections will be “dramatically different.” As for the trend to hire PR firms, he said: “I do not think PR agencies can repackage a product that is bad.”
