VIJAYAWADA: Winning an election is no easy task. It takes an army to campaign for a political party on the ground and another team in the background, which conducts surveys, crunches numbers, chalks out election strategies and advises politicians.
From leaders of the YSRC and tripartite alliance exchanging personal barbs to the Chief Minister being hit by a stone during an election rally, the ballot battle in the State has been fierce. Behind this keen contest between the YSRC and the TDP-JSP-BJP combine is another competition: I-PAC vs Showtime Consulting.
Showtime, the political consultancy firm whose client is the TDP, was founded by Robbin Sharrma with Shantanu Singh as one of the directors and head of operations. He, along with noted election strategist Prashant Kishor, Rishi Raj Singh and Sunil Kanugolu had co-founded I-PAC. This was the team behind YSRC’s massive victory in 2019.
Robbin has also headed Narendra Modi’s ‘Chai Pe Charcha’ campaign in the run up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, besides working with Rahul Gandhi and Nitish Kumar.
Asked about his take on the battle between the consultancy firms, Robbin tells TNIE that I-PAC is very close to his heart. “Not just Andhra Pradesh, if there were ever a face off between the two firms in any other State, I will never look at it as I-PAC vs Showtime. My only focus is on ensuring that the TDP wins this election and party supremo Chandrababu Naidu comes back to power,” he asserts.
Giving a peek into the campaign strategies crafted for the yellow party’s revival in the State, the MBA graduate says they have put a major focus, around 60-70%, on positive campaigning and 30-40% on negative campaigning. “Being in the Opposition, we have to attack the government to explain to the people why change is needed. That’s why negative campaigning is important,” he says. On the other hand, he observes, that the YSRC, despite being the ruling party, is doing negative campaigning.
Brushing aside criticism that the TDP’s Super Six schemes have been picked up from Congress's playbook, Robbin points out, “We conducted a door-to-door survey through ‘Idhem Karma Mana Rashtraniki’ to find out the problems people were facing. We received 60 lakh issues from the people across various categories, including drinking water, jobs, inflation and development. Based on these issues, the Super Six was formulated way before the Congress in Telangana even released its manifesto.”
Elaborating on the campaign, he says, “The plan was to collect people’s feedback and send the forms they filled explaining their problems to Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy to question him if the YSRC has indeed fulfilled 99% of the election promises, why are people still coming forward to share their issues? Why are they not happy? The purpose of the campaign was to make people realise that the government has failed. It was designed to bring out the anti-incumbency from the sub-conscious mind to the conscious mind.”
Asked if the forms were sent to the CM, Robbin says they couldn’t as the officials prevented them from delivering the feedback forms.
The Super Six raised many eyebrows as the TDP had been accusing the YSRC government of incurring immense debt to distribute welfare aid. With the TDP promising to ensure better welfare schemes, the YSRC upped its ante against the yellow party and questioned its ‘double standards’.
Responding to this criticism, the Showtime founder asserts that Naidu has always emphasised that welfare and development should go hand in hand. “Through Idhem Karma, we learnt that women’s savings, meant for rainy days were being affected. They weren’t able to save anymore as their families were struggling because of inflation and lack of jobs. Hence, we derived the promise of Rs 1,500 per month as a sign of empowerment. `1,500 per month, three gas cylinders in a year and Rs 15,000 for children should be seen as a package under Maha Shakti to fight inflation and empower women to work on their skills.”
Stating that the beauty of welfare is that it can be countered, Robbin says, “We checked on the ground whether people were loyal to Jagan or were they just interested in the money. We found that people who were getting the money, they also wanted development. They said that the government should not just be a provider. The YSRC is only distributing wealth, but once there is no money, how will you distribute money?”
“After Super 6, we shifted focus to Naidu’s main strength: development. No one can do development like him or governance like him. We disrupted the positioning of Jagan as a welfare man and switched to development. So we started a negative campaign, but we ended on a positive note with ‘Babu Ni Malli Rappidam’,” he adds.
Refuting reports that the YSRC has an edge over the TDP in rural areas, Robbin exudes confidence and says the yellow party has a 4% lead in rural areas. Elaborating, he says, “TDP’s real vote share spiked during Jagan’s Siddham. Data suggests it was counter-productive. It looked like someone in the opposition was doing it. He highlighted the healthcare failure in the State. After 58 months, Jagan was listening to people’s problems. Someone should’ve told him that he’s the CM and he’s highlighting his own failures.”
On Jagan’s remarks that the election is a class war, he quips, “This strategy is flawed and won’t work for someone like Jagan, who has never seen poverty himself. He is the richest CM in the country. Additionally, he has been inaccessible throughout.”