The Congress is set to launch its campaign for the Lok Sabha election in the first week of March. The party is expected to focus on the “non-fulfilment” of promises by the BJP government, highlighting its vada (promise) and dhokha (betrayal).
The work on the campaign strategy began in October. Top sources say many companies such as Leo Burnett, Niksun, FCB-ULKA, Percept, Design Boxed and Crayons made a series of presentations on the campaign strategy. The Congress had worked with many of these firms in the past too. In 2004, the Congress campaign around the Aam Aadmi to counter the NDA’s “India Shining” pitch was helmed by Leo Burnett. For the 2014 election, Japanese firm Dentsu India handled the Congress’s ₹500-crore advertising campaign.
Catching the pulse
The sources say seven taglines have been shortlisted including Bande Mein Hai Dum-Saath Challenge Hum , Ab Is Bar Soch Samajh Ke , and Bahut Hua Jumalon Ki Mar-Aao Badlein Modi Sarkar . The companies made their presentation on January 30 and 31 to the core committee, headed by A.K. Antony and with Ghulam Nabi Azad, P. Chidambaram, Ashok Gehlot, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ahmed Patel, Jairam Ramesh, Randeep Surjewala and K.C. Venugopal as members. A meeting of the campaign committee and State campaign committee chairpersons was held on Monday and Tuesday to further fine-tune the taglines and the campaign strategy.
The Congress’s emphasis is on the critical 130 million first-time voters and 110 million second-time voters who voted in 2014. A total of 900 million persons are on the rolls for Lok Sabha election.
The first phase of the campaign was to begin by February 20 but for now it has been delayed. Sources say Congress president Rahul Gandhi is unhappy over the delay. “It is a work in progress, and it has been a fairly comprehensive exercise,” Anand Sharma, Deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha and chairman of the publicity committee of the Congress, said
The campaign is expected to change gears once the nomination process is completed. There will be a dual campaign, one for the States where it is in a direct fight with the BJP and another where it is fighting in alliance with regional parties. “There will be uniformity in the Congress message across the nation,” a source said. In 2014, the Congress was taken by surprise with the digital effort of the BJP, while it was still using it in a rudimentary manner. It is learnt from sources that the Congress is considering hiring a digital media firm and has had presentations by the New York-based Gutenburg and India-based Silverpush.
A member of the publicity committee told The Hindu that the Assembly election in five States was used as a testing ground for its strategy. “We worked at many levels to distil the issues affecting the people the most. At first stage, data was collected, then inputs from the State units were collated and we did a real time check on the issues ,” the member said.
