The strategists helping parties with poll game plan: Teen Bandar to DesignBoxed, who they are and what they do

Speaking to The Indian Express on condition of anonymity, a strategist whose firm is working with the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) for the Telangana polls says his team provided “actionable points – related to various political and governance aspects – (down to the) gram panchayat level” to the BRS and its leaders.

“Initially, we worked on all the 119 Assembly segments in Telangana, but are currently focusing on 50 seats, which we feel are ‘battleground’ seats (with projected victory margin between 10% plus or minus of the votes polled in a seat),” the strategist says, adding that there are about 300 people working with him on different verticals – field operations, political intelligence, digital media and propagation.

The strategist, who had earlier been with Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC, one of the earliest winners in this field, says his team holds regular discussions with the BRS top brass to take stock of the implementation of the blueprint they have worked out for the polls.

Preetam Patil, a senior political consultant who works with a senior Congress MP, says he provides inputs in “operational management, strategic outreach (online, media, on-ground), unbiased political intelligence, and crafting of a campaign narrative”.

“A majority of candidates across party lines typically have a handful of people instead of a professional consultant team. These individuals are usually the leaders’ personal assistants or social media managers. They significantly rely on cadre for most things, whose inputs are often biased,” Patil says, adding that a large part of his job is introducing leaders to fresh ideas and perspectives and new technology. “This organises the chaos of elections in a smart and accountable way.”

Meghana, who had been working as a consultant with the Congress and its leaders in several states, says that “the primary job of a political consultancy is to ensure that a candidate or party’s messaging – on-ground and digital – reaches beyond their voter base”.

“A party or candidate has a set narrative but our job is to bring out their candid side while subscribing to the ideology of the party. This helps them establish a personal connection with their voters, thus brightening their chances in the elections,” she says.

Meghana adds that a consultancy often has a bird’s eye view of the political happenings of the region or state and thus helps streamline the party or its candidates’ campaign to help achieve better results. “A classic example is Karnataka, where the induction of a consultancy was one of the key factors which helped the Congress record a thumping victory in the Assembly elections.”

Apart from the strategies, rallies, voter outreach and messaging, another key thing that consultants manage for parties and candidates is branding.

A key member of DesignBoxed, which is handling the campaign for incumbent Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in Rajasthan, says, “Innovative branding is one of the elements of a campaign which is overlooked, but in terms of impact, it is the most effective. We at DesignBoxed, apart from the usual strategising, put in efforts to ensure that the candidate or party speaks the language of the masses through our branding. We feel our efforts are bearing fruits and this would be evident in the December 3 results.”

Several consultants have also been working independently for some leaders. Political strategist B Sathish, who was previously with a leading consultancy firm, is now working with a BRS leader. “We identify neutral voters booth-wise for the candidate and help the leader devise specific strategies to target them,” he says.