With the assembly election dates announced by the Election Commission for the states of Haryana and Maharashtra, scheduled to be held on 15th of October, major political parties have just about finalized their alliances and candidates. Both in Maharashtra and Haryana- the key national players namely the Congress and the BJP as well as the respective regional parties- Chautalas INLD in Haryana and Sharad Pawars NCP alongwith with Shiv Sena in Maharashtra will be going solo. Each of these parties, after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, have begun to understand the vital importance of political communication and perception management. These polls, in a sense would be an interesting opportunity to document how parties approach and nuance their campaign styles and political agendas, in this electioneering season and to gauge whether they have learnt any lessons from the past. Given Haryanas proximity to the national capital, let us do a quick stock-taking. The 2014 Lok Sabha election was dominated by a high-voltage campaign led by Narendra Modi. The message from the BJP was clear- a vote to the BJP would be a vote for Modi as PM. Other leaders, including the likes of Jaitley, Rajnath, Sushma and Advani had no role to play. Modi addressed hundreds of rallies, some of them through an innovative 3D technology and hit out hard on the issues of corruption and dynasty cloaked with a covert brand of Hindutva, which was fine tuned adroitly to suit the target audience. Given the recent drubbing in the September by-polls where BJP tried to up the ante on Hindutva and the lack of appetite that the electorate in Maharashtra and Haryana have for issues like Love Jihad, one suspects that this card would not be played as aggressively as the natural instincts of the BJP might want to ordinarily. The 2014 Lok Sabha elections had also seen a very personalized campaign being unleashed particularly against the Gandhi family and businessman Robert Vadra who is married to Priyanka Gandhi. Robert, was targeted both by the Aam Admi Party and the BJP for some land transactions in Haryana, which was pitched as a text book case of corruption! The Congress response was, as had been during the entire campaign- slow, ineffective and circumspect, did no justice to the fact that the land deals being questioned had been scrutinized by no less than the Supreme Court and the Allahabad High Court in two separate PILs. In both cases, the PILs demanding a CBI probe into an alleged case of corruption and favoritism were quashed with the SC unequivocally stating that Merely because someone is linked to a politician, he (Robert ) cant be called as a sinner. Recently, even the Delhi High Court, which was hearing yet another PIL in Vadra matter, threw it out, completing a triple vindication of sorts! His confidantes now hope that in the forthcoming Haryana elections Robert Vadra would no longer be an issue. And indeed, that seems to be the case! Given that the BJP in its ten months in power in Rajasthan and three months in the centre has not been able to logically follow up any of the cases alleged by them, has also been a factor. Pushing the Bofors issue as an agenda beyond its shell-life has cost the BJP once.The same mistake wont be made in the Vadra case says an insider managing the partys online campaign. The recent sting operation showing a BJP leader trying to buy an AAP MLA for Rs 4 crores in an attempt to form the government in Delhi has also done much damage to the anti-corruption plank the BJP was harping upon few months ago. Lacking a strong regional face, organization and a concrete agenda,the BJPs ad campaign, which have begun on the radio, attempts to ride on the Modi-wave and his governments honeymoon period to make serious in-roads in the Haryana assembly. AAP which had made Ashok Khemka and his allegations on Robert Vadra its major campaign point, lost all the 10 Lok Sabha seats in Haryana. Prof Yogendra Yadav, its best known face after Kejriwal himself lost deposit from the prestigious Gurgaon Lok Sabha seat. After this most humiliating defeat, AAP seems to have lost its base and voice across Haryana and is not even in a mood to contest the polls. The other players like INLDs Ajay Chautala too are skipping the issue of corruption altogether for obvious reasons. In one of the recent episodes of ABP news premier show GhoshnaPatra, the anchor Kishore Ajwani himself caught out junior Chautala for avoiding any suo-moto reference to the issue of corruption, obviously hinting at the lack of credibility any such accusation would carry coming from a party whose top leadership was convicted for corruption! The Congress campaign, led by its Chief Minister Bhupinder Hooda is revolving around the all-round transformation and development of the state. No.1 hai Haryana sung to a catchy hip-hop tune with glimpses of the sporting talent that state has produced including the likes of boxing champion Vijender Singh and others, can be seen on the regional Haryanvi channels. The attempt is obviously to present Hooda as the vikas purush of Haryana and counter the Gujarat Model propaganda which got Modi into power at the centre. Deepender Hooda, who also leads the Congress social media effort, needs to ensure that the loose ends in the Congress communication campaign during the Loksabha polls are tied up, given the influence it can have on first time voters (FTVs) and floating voters (FVs). The smaller parties like Kuldip Bishnois HJC and Venod Sharma (Sharma himself owns a media group ) were given a raw deal by the BJP and are making their own individual efforts. Another notorious name, Gopal Kanda, who has had a major run in with the law in the Geetika Sharma case, is also using the local media to re-package himself in the mould of a leader sensitive to gender concerns! Eventually, all these parties will attempt to consolidate its support amongst its traditional caste bases, hoping to scalp up enough seats to demand their share in the spoils of power in case a hung assembly verdict is delivered in Haryana. While most parties will have a face- the Congress will go with Hooda, while trying to mollify other leaders like Kumari Shelja and Ashok Tanwar, the INLD says Om Prakash Chautala will be its CM candidate notwithstanding the legal impediments, the HJC claims Kuldip Bishnoi continues to be a serious player despite his recent losses in previous elections. Curiously it will be the BJP that will not have a regional face as such. This would be quite different from the strategy of the party in states like Gujarat,MP, Chattisgarh. All in all, the Haryana elections will be an exciting affair to watch in terms of the campaigns that unfold and the political moves that would be adopted, particularly post the counting day on 19th October.
Posted on: Wed, 01 Oct 2014 09:48:42 +0000
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