New Delhi: A video of Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot is going viral. Video talks with a woman during an event While announcing his Rs 500 per cylinder scheme on Monday, Gehlot asked him if he had cows. The woman says,I don’t sing, my friend Two (Not a cow, I have a parrot).”
Gehlot laughs and asks about Mithu’s health. Gehlot told the woman, “Tell Mithu that you told the CM about her and tell me what he says.”
This video does many favors to the CM. It helps her make a grounded connection, makes her words memorable and makes her seem more approachable.
So, this is the moment when Designboxed, the political consulting firm hired by Gehlot to run his campaign, is taking to social media.
As the Congress party in the state finds itself in a ‘will-he-won’t-he-will’ situation with Gehlot’s rival Sachin Pilot – the Rajasthan chief minister has taken a leaf out of his Karnataka colleague DK Shivakumar’s book and Joined DesignBoxed ahead of the upcoming state elections.
DesignBoxed Projects led by Naresh Arora and Gunjit Kaur To run a “positive” and “public welfare” campaign for the Congress in Rajasthan, as they did in Karnataka.
“In Karnataka, we proved that if you stick to public issues and put (party) cadre strength behind it, it works,” said Vinayak Dutt, head of research and media at DesignBoxed.
In Karnataka in 2021, when DesignBoxed was brought up, Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah were engaged in a factional fight. However, according to DesignBoxed office bearers, the strategy adopted then was to shift the focus towards welfare schemes. The party’s decision to give priority to its 5 electoral guarantees – its main election platform in the state – was a step in this direction.
It was our idea to introduce the word ‘guarantee’, which we used for the first time when we were campaigning for the Congress in Assam, he said. We are not involved in Hindu-Muslim polarization (in Rajasthan) because we have seen that a public welfare model has helped us win highly polarized seats in Karnataka as well. We are instead trying to build a story around public welfare,” said Dutt.
ThePrint reached the Rajasthan chief minister’s office for comment via email. This article will be updated upon response.
a ‘positive’ force
DesignBoxed was hired by Gehlot in February this year, just before the state budget. The budget session started with a PR blitzkrieg. Its subject – “savings, relief and gains (Savings, Relief and Development)”.
in April the The government introduced ‘Mahangai Rahat’ camps to expand the reach of its schemes.
Under the Mehangai Rahat, any person having a Jan Aadhaar card can register themselves to know which of the 10 government welfare schemes they are eligible for. After that they can register themselves for the schemes in the camp.
“Expensive relief camps are changing perception, helping reduce anti-incumbency. It is finding resonance especially among women. We believe in the concept of positive campaigns as opposed to retaliatory, negative campaigns. We have seen that it helps swing voters to connect with them because at the end of the day, they ask what they are going to get,” said Dutt.
A source at DesignBoxed also said that there is a daily tracker that tracks the numbers for the camp with options instead of voters.
According to some top DesignBoxed executives who spoke to ThePrint on condition of anonymity, their two biggest learnings from Karnataka are not to advise “one-upmanship” and focus on “simplified, one-on-one communication”. Had to concentrate.
Gehlot’s viral “Mithu” video, an executive said, is a good example.
“We were smiling when we were editing the video, so it will definitely have the same effect on those watching it. This kind of face-to-face communication helps people to think that the leader is approachable,” the executive said.
“We do not think that a social media campaign or any kind of communication campaign can work without a leader on the ground. Then we try to turn our narrative towards that and ensure that the infighting is not exposed. We have found that only politically aware people look into issues like factionalism. Others only care about what they are getting from the government,” the executive said.
Another Designboxed executive said that neither Gehlot nor Shivakumar asked for a personal campaign. So his focus has been on establishing not only the individual but also the party.
“Positive campaigns get votes. Negative campaigns get headlines,” the executive said. “If you look, ‘acche din’ The slogan worked because it gave people hope. Its theme was positive. It told people that something great was around the corner. We believe in similar communication and messaging.”
Working with Congress ‘difficult’
The decision of both Gehlot and Shivakumar to hire DesignBoxed is significant considering that the Congress already has the inclusive mind of strategist Sunil Kanungolu at work. In fact, while Kanungolu, now a member of the Congress, has worked with parties across the spectrum – such as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK), Other. — DesignBoxed has worked exclusively for the Congress in its 11-year journey.
Unlike other political consultancies like IPAC or Inclusive Minds (formerly Mindshare Analytics), DesignBoxed started out working for individual clients – candidates who want to become legislators. He was not associated with the party.
His first big project was when former Congress leader Captain Amarinder Singh brought him in to handle the party’s communications in the last month of the Punjab campaign in 2017.
After that, in 2018, the consultancy started working in Chhattisgarh, where they were joined by the then Congress Legislature Party leader TS Singhdeo. He then worked for the Congress in the last election in Rajasthan in 2018, when Pilot was the President of the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC).
In 2019, the AICC, directed by the late Ahmed Patel, hired the firm for its Haryana campaign. DesignBoxed then worked for the Congress in the 2021 Assam elections and the 2022 Meghalaya and 2023 Karnataka elections.
Most of these campaigns are lost, and the team says this is due to lack of time. Second, he said, Congress is the most difficult customer.
“We had two years in Karnataka and we delivered. We had nine months in Chhattisgarh and we delivered. We had only 30 days in Haryana and 72 days in Assam. In Meghalaya, where TMC (Trinamool Congress) looted our entire party and IPAC (Indian Political Action Committee) was working for months, we got only 24 days,” said another Designbox executive. “Still, if you see the results of these states – in Haryana, we got 33 seats when AICC was expecting single digit. In Assam, we have got 29 seats more than last time. In Meghalaya, we are tied with TMC.”
“Working with Congress is even more difficult as there are multiple bosses and there is no single chain of command. Second, we haven’t even signed on to ‘winning’ campaigns. We aim to give results in the time given to us. In Rajasthan also we have nine months. We are hoping to win it for the party,” said the executive.
(Editing by Zinnia Ray Chowdhury)
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