Indian politics witnessed a corporate style makeover in 2014 that changed the scenario of electioneering. Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), a cohort of young professionals decided to change the face of Indian politics forever and is leading this new wave of political strategizing and marketing. They launched their first campaign centred on building Narendra Modi’s brand among the youngsters of the nation.
Later, in 2015, CAG (re-organised as Indian Political Action Committee or I-PAC) paved the way for political entrepreneurship in India. Political consultancies primarily operate on digital platforms and work from the point of view of digital marketers and surveyors and connect directly to their target audience. However, in any election campaign, on-ground election management is one of the most challenging and exhausting processes, especially in elections across India. I-PAC has excelled with outstanding management skills in both of these processes with outstanding management skills which led them to victories.
I-PAC opened their score by helping Narendra Modi become the Prime Minister of India. After that, they did not look behind. One after another, they won several campaigns that helped candidates becoming Chief Ministers, including Nitish Kumar, Captain Amarinder Singh Singh, Jagan Mohan Reddy and recently Uddhav Thackeray was also added to this list. On the same day that Uddhav Thackeray took oath as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, I-PAC’s newest client Mamata Banerjee’s AITMC also won the by-poll elections in all the three assembly constituencies.
While most of India’s political consulting firms have become PR agencies running online advertising campaigns, I-PAC aims to work with them and seeks to engage the large electorate of our nation as active participants in the electoral process. In order to change the way elections are fought, I-PAC trains young minds to make a difference in the Indian electioneering. They deploy field teams at several regions of the country to understand the needs and grievances of the people, which is what most politicians fail to address to a large extent.
For instance, I-PAC drafted a campaign for Jagan Mohan Reddy called Praja Sankalpa Yatra through energetic young minds with a better understanding of politics so that Mr Reddy could know about the grievances and problems of the common people.
Prashant Kishor, a political strategist, acts as a mentor to I-PAC and ensures that the entire team is on the right track in the current political context. In addition, he helps the leaders liaise with I-PAC to ensure a proper fusion of traditional politics with modern methods while contesting the election campaigns. The nation will witness massive digital and on-ground campaigns in future, and I-PAC tries to ensure that they will represent a true mass leader.