The heart of the high pitched campaign being waged by the YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh beats in a small building in the Banjara Hills locality of Hyderabad — the office of the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) which has been with the campaign for the better part of two years.
Devil in the details
From providing the logistical wherewithal for party leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s mammoth 3,684 km Praja Sankalpa Yatra to Samara Shankaravam (booth-cadre meetings) to the Jagan Anna Pilippu (Jagan Anna (elder brother) is calling you) mini campaigns in the midst, the build up has been to give a specific direction to the party’s message across Andhra Pradesh and to ensure that the momentum is maintained.
Janata Dal (U) vice president Prashant Kishor, the founder of IPAC is now a mentor with the organisation, after his entry into formal politics.
Scattered across the four floors of the building are not just publicity materials, but white boards that track the campaigns of Mr. Reddy, his sister Sharmila and their mother Y.S. Vijayamma, as well as every day trackers for both Assembly and Lok Sabha constituencies.
According to Asba Farooqui, who joined the team on this particular assignment after a stint as a management consultant in the corporate sector, the mini campaigns were necessary building blocks for the concerted strategy. “From booth level build up of party workers to at least two direct mass contact programmes between Mr. Reddy (referred by the team as JMR) and the public were held,” he said.
In the Samara Shankaravam for example, a goal of 11 party workers per booth was fixed, which led to a huge total of over five lakh booth workers with each booth having one convenor at the top.
During the “Jagan Anna Pilippu” outreach, over 60,000 plus village level “neutral” influencers were identified and received personalised letters from Mr. Reddy. They were then invited for an interaction with him and provided an email address and phone number for suggestions for campaign and governance goals.
Several defections
As a measure of the efficacy of the campaign, the team cites the fact that there have been a total of 1400 defections to the YSRCP from other parties, including two TDP men whose names had been announced as candidates for the Assembly poll, all in the last one month.
Political campaigns are tricky things, but the team is hoping their professional management of the party’s affair is here to stay.
