Political workshop

Routine: Awasthi,an MBA student,begins his day at 7.30 a.m. and he is in office by 9,making calls to around 150 booth committee heads. Awasthi and his colleagues at the call centre collect information from each of the polling stations in the state and pass them on to their leaderAkhilesh bhaiyya,SP state president Akhilesh Yadav

A single mistake on our part can cost the candidate his ticket or the party a seat

Abhay Raj Awasthi shoots off,rapid-fire: You are in charge of 10 booths,No. 196 to 206,in Bikapur constituency. Do you know that? What is the voting percentage in your sector so far? What is the polling percentage in the partys favour? Who is leading in Booth 198? Which party is strongest here?

With Uttar Pradesh in the midst of a crucial assembly election,Awasthi,all of 26,represents a generational shift in the way politics is traditionally conducted in the state. Connecting with the grassroots isnt about durbars on party lawns anymore,its done real-time in call centres like this one,a room on the second floor of the Lohia Trust building on Vikramaditya Road in Lucknow that houses the Samajwadi Partys Call Centre-cum-Control Room. All major partiesthe SP,BSP,Congress and BJPhave similar call centres that act as their nerve centres during elections.

Awasthi scribbles furiously on a piece of paper. Around him,phones ring incessantly and he hangs up with a pep talk: Aap acchha kaam kar rahe hain. Bas ab party ke favour me zyada se zyada vote dalwaiye You are doing a good job. Just ensure that maximum votes are polled in the partys favour. Around him,his colleagues shout instructions into phones. An LCD television screen mounted on the wall screens a news channel that is on mute.

The team at the call centre collects information from each of the polling stations in the state and passes them on to their leader Akhilesh bhaiyya,SP state president Akhilesh Yadav.

The call centre was inaugurated on November 22,Mulayam Singh Yadavs birthday. Two days earlier,on November 20 Awasthi got a call from a senior party worker,asking if he wanted to volunteer at the Samajwadi Party office. Awasthi,whose mother is also a member of the party,readily agreed. He had joined his fathers transport business after quitting his job at a call centre in Delhi,so he knew he could take some time off for the party.

Since then,he says,his routine has changed considerably. Being the youngest at home,I have always had it easy. I wouldnt wake up before 10 or 11 in morning. But now,his days begin at 7.30 a.m. and he is in office by 9,making calls to around 150 booth committee heads.

The party,explains Awasthi,has divided each constituency into 25 to 30 sectors,with 10 to 15 polling booths in each sector. Each booth has a team of 10 booth committee members and a person in charge. He begins his day at work by choosing a constituency and calling those in charge of the booths.

But today,on a Wednesday,as the state votes in the first phase of elections,Awasthis job is to call each booth committee head and collect data on the percentage of votes polled in the Samajwadi Partys favour. From the feedback that I have been getting,it seems the SP is doing well in Bikapur seat, Awasthi tells his team leader,who will pass on that information to Akhilesh.

Our reports are very important for Akhilesh bhaiyya, says Awasthi,talking about instances when the SP leader has taken serious decisions based on reports from the call centre. There was a candidate from Koraon seat in Allahabad. When the booth committee members told us that the candidate was not doing very well,we informed Akhilesh bhaiyya. Someone else was given the ticket. That is what makes this job different from what I did at the call centre in Delhi. Here,we are all under pressure because a single mistake can cost the candidate his ticket or the party a seat, he says.

A graduate in Business Administration from Lucknow University and now studying for his MBA from Amity University through correspondence,Awasthi knows this system of feedback has its risks. The people we talk to are all party workers,so the feedback we get can be biased, he says. But they make sure that nobodys word goes unchecked. For instance,I get a negative feedback from a booth worker,I would then call up every other booth worker in the constituency to verify that first accusation. When cross questioned,the workers open up and the truth comes out, he says.

When Awasthi and others in the team pass on their feedback to Akhilesh,they make sure that anything that needs his attention,however uncomfortable it may be to the party,is brought to his notice. That way,he can control the situation in time. And if someone reports that a particular constituency looks good for the party,instead of asserting that the party will win,they say is likely to win,because bhaiyya might think the situation is completely under control when it could be that the people giving us the feedback are biased.

At times,Akhilesh passes on information that he may have about a particular candidate or booth and asks the team at the call centre to verify it. They also get calls from party workers seeking help,some asking for phone numbers of leaders. The first call I got the day I joined was from a worker who wanted to wish Netaji Mulayam Singh Yadav on his birthday, he says,his attention shifting to the phone.

In how many booths is the BSP leading in your sector, he asks the caller,and instructs him to collect voting percentages when polling concludes for the day. I will call them again at 5 p.m. to collect the final figures, he says.

After the elections,Awasthi hopes to prepare for his final semester MBA exams. But he agrees that his political internship has been life changing and that he will serve the party in the future as well. I do not think the call centre will shut down after the elections. In fact,if SP forms the government,this centre might prove to be a boon for the party,like the Chhattisgarh and Bihar governments that already have such call centres. I will be happy to contribute to it further, he says. And if things go wrong for the party,he always has his fathers business to return to.