Lucknow brands ‘the CM UP Akhilesh Yadav does not know’

With assembly polls less than two years away and his Samajwadi Party under severe threat going by the setbacks it suffered in the Lok Sabha elections, Akhilesh has set about branding himself and his government through radio and TV, besides online channels, social media and a website dedicated to his government. On the ground, vans with LED screens are reaching villages to tell the rural voter who Akhilesh is.

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The latest in the promotion blitz is a 15-minute slot on at least half a dozen FM radio stations. Called UP ki Kahaniyan, these ‘Stories of UP’ will be narrated by Neelesh Misra. The programme is a government effort to work its way around a Supreme Court directive that restricts the use of the CM’s pictures in government advertisements. The stories Misra tell will not mention Akhilesh specifically but promote the work done by his government.

One story, for example, is about a filmmaker struggling for shooting locations until he reaches UP, where he not only shoots his film but also gets grant under the state’s film policy. Another story describes a poor farmer who starts a dhaba that soon attracts workers building the Agra-Lucknow Expressway, leading to a flourishing business. A third is about students who got laptops from the government, opening new avenues for admission to courses and presenting various jobs to apply for.

“The stories relate to UP and one will easily identify them with the development projects going on,” says Navneet Sehgal, principal secretary, Information and Public Relations, the department that has launched the campaign.

Although Akhilesh’s government has picked it up now, his father Mulayam Singh Yadav is a veteran of branding. The Samajwadi Party president says frequently in official meetings that three tasks are vital in politics — parcha, charcha and kharcha, or publicity, discussion and expenditure. At his functions, Mulayam makes it a point that photographers are seated in the front row, for he is a firm believer in the theory that voters only recognise his face and are not concerned about what is written about him.

Officials say Akhilesh has now directed them that photographers and videographers be given details in advance about his programmes outside Lucknow, even personal visits. On social media, Akhilesh himself has been sharing every possible picture of his family and his foreign visits. One government advertisement shows a picture he clicked himself, showing the Agra-Lucknow Expressway from a helicopter. The CM’s office routinely releases Akhilesh’s pictures with celebrities, including Bollywood actors.

For TV, the I&PR department has started work on nearly 150 promotional films, each of 5 to 10 minutes, with themes such as Lion Safari, Expressway and Medical Colleges. Highlighting the projects of various departments such as PWD, irrigation, women welfare and agriculture, the films will be telecast on a number of channels.

The LED vans, eight of which are touring the state, are showing longer films. These are targeting remote villages and rural markets. Separately, an LED screen is being set up in the headquarters of every district, with a dozen districts having already got their screens, connected to a control room.

One novelty is a caller tone, called Yuva Josh, Yuva Soch, being used by officials in across the I&PR department as well as the police. The government plans to make it the compulsory tone in every closed user group of official mobiles.

Also on the anvil is news360.com, a website dedicated to news relating to the state government. Besides, a state-of-the-art social media monitoring system is being readied to track every development online and work on it. The state government’s YouTube channel has already been broadcasting Akhilesh’s functions while the government is very active on its Twitter handle.