A Passing Rumour Heard On The Radio?

When results were out on the elections to the 17th Uttar Pradesh assembly, the Gomti by Lucknow retained its end-winter calm바카라�in stark contrast was the shock the Samajwadi Party got from the voters of the state. The SP, in a nascent alliance with the Congress, mustered just 54 of the 403 seats, implying that much of the gargantuan poll expenses by outgoing chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had gone down the river.

Five years ago, in the 2012 assembly polls, Akhilesh had won a decisive majority of 224 seats, leading the party바카라�s campa­ign and selling himself as a youth leader. That rosy story hit the Narendra Modi wave two years later; the SP slumped to only five out of UP바카라�s 80 LS seats. Still, he moved into the latest poll with new wind in his sail and a new narrative spun around himself바카라�a bruising battle with the old guard in the SP part of it. With a tie-up with his young peer in the Congress, he deigned to be the main rival to the BJP.

But this narrative was built on the back of a massive ad cam­paign, speculated to have cost hundreds of crores of rup­ees바카라�that too in a political season defined by the alleged use of black money and unbilled favours. The details, to the ext­ent they can be guessed at, are revealing. And they can only be guessed at바카라�for the law stipulates that deta­ils of expe­nditure be furnished with the Election Commission within 90 days of elections, but that seldom happens.

A bulk of the SP바카라�s poll expenditure went to foot media exp­enses. This includes TV commercials, radio spots, glossy print media spreads, gaudy floats that blared music from alumin­ium cones and hoardings gawking at people across the country바카라�s largest state. Not to mention the latest money- churner: social media. How do they all add up? We don바카라�t know.

There are old figures available. The SP바카라�s audit statements for 2013-14 and 바카라�14-15 declared an income (fees, subscriptions, contrib­utions) of Rs 159 crore and Rs 181 crore respectively. The exp­enses shown for the respe­ctive years were around Rs 22 crore and Rs 76 crore. Exp­erts naturally don바카라�t subscribe to declared figures. 바카라�Poli­tical parties use proxy organisations to print adverts,바카라� says Alok Rai, who teaches marketing and brand management at the BHU. 바카라�Parties hire agencies for which they have a very high budget.바카라� For instance, the Congress in 2014 hired Japanese ad-PR company Dentsu, Rai notes, for Rs 500 crore to fetch the party바카라�s leader Rahul Gandhi an image makeover. For the parliamentary polls that time, the Grand Old Party disclosed Rs 563 crore as its total election expenses. As per the poll body바카라�s data, the SP declared an expenditure of Rs 64 crore for the 2014 LS elections. Compare this with that of the BJP바카라�s Rs 700 crore바카라�even that, many allege was a deflated figure. Going by the pattern, how much would the SP have actually expended in 2014 and 2017? Unanswered phone calls to Akhilesh and his associates leave it a mystery.

A pollster who predicted a 250-plus seat win for the BJP in UP this time says all media houses must have earned a huge revenue from that state from 2011 till now. 바카라�There were three major elections: the 2012 and 바카라�17 state assembly elections and the 2014 Lok Sabha elections,바카라� he notes.

Those observing UP from inside say all the contesting parties spend a lot. Initially, the SP campaigned in association with a Delhi-based image consultant. The effect was visible on the social media pages of the Yadav clan. Then, after the split in the SP earlier this year, Akhilesh and his rebel team moved on (taking the SP바카라�s bicycle symbol with them), while party founder Mulayam Singh and his brother Shiv­pal Yadav remained with this image manager. That is when people started to notice a huge surge of publicity for Akhil­esh in the English media바카라�leading to rumours about 바카라�paid news바카라�.

Media analyst Sevanti Ninan, editor of The Hoot, says UP 2017 was not just a state election, but was tantamount to a referendum on demonetisation and the popula­rity of the PM. 바카라�There was interest in whether the BJP would rep­eat its 2014 Lok Sabha performance in UP. Elections are a huge viewership-getter and advertising draw바카라�no media outlet will miss the chance to get viewers and readers,바카라� she says. 바카라�Therefore, there has been a lot of legitimate interest in covering these polls.바카라� So, if Rahul won바카라�t talk, it makes sense to go for the more  accessible Akhilesh and put a face with the news reports. That still doesn바카라�t cover the speculation about paid news. As for the social media campaign, the SP built it from scratch, strategised by a 100-strong team led by Steve Jarding, a Harvard professor who had helped with Hillary Clinton바카라�s presidential campaign in the US last year.

The BJP has a huge social media cadre. On any issue, it is a matter of simply activating it and then watching the carpet-bombing that follows. 바카라�The content generation and cur­ation required in this is enormous,바카라� says a Luck­now-based journalist. 바카라�The SP managed to get close to the BJP on social media sites, the latter won hands down on Whats­App. Text or video, the BJP was way ahead in pushing its message.바카라� The same goes with radio spots, he adds. Each FM channel can cover up to 7-8 Vidhan Sabha seats. 바카라�The BJP had stressed on radio from early, and did well on FM. They began on a high number and re-invested later on,바카라� he says. 바카라�The release orders for radio ads were issued at the right time and held in a close circle to insulate it from leakages.바카라�

As CM, Akhilesh used radio to communicate the development activities of his government. Bureaucrat Navneet Sehgal was a key figure here바카라�Akhilesh coopted Sehgal, considered a powerful officer during Mayawati바카라�s last tenure, and turned it around with the radio playing a big role.  Listeners in Delhi heard the popular Neelesh Misra promoting UP바카라�s schemes through his talk-show. Outlook spoke to Misra, but he claims to not see much of a story in media expenses during elections. The successful strategy promp­ted the CM to draw Sehgal closer to his government바카라�s image management.

The SP-Congress alliance also ran advertisement campa­igns through strategist Prashant Kishor바카라�s team. But Kishor could not replicate his success in the 2014 BJP campaign or the 2015 JD(U) campaign in Bihar, reportedly hurdled by the Congress바카라� inner bickering.

So, why the huge spend?

바카라�A CM has different government agencies at his disposal, and would perhaps be aware that he바카라�d only get 50 seats,바카라� says Prof Rai. 바카라�Akhilesh바카라�s father handed him the government, he got the party and symbol through a coup and now he has to drum up support for himself. Through the entire media exe­rcise, Akhilesh was positioning himself as a future leader for a larger role or a space in future elections in the state.바카라�

The very nature of electoral politics has changed since the advent of cult politics that requires the creation of individual brands over the corporate (party) brands, adds Rai. 바카라�Individual brands require communication of a certain set of attributes and this new demand has made electoral politics a very expensive affair,바카라� he explains. 바카라�When you spend on brand communication, the customer develops many expectations and when these are not met, there is brand dissonance. That is what Arvind Kejriwal has been doing in Delhi where his AAP created a brand based on anti-corruption promises through a social organisation. The side effects will be very heavy, as seen by his result in Punjab.바카라�

On the internet, 43-year-old Akhilesh바카라�s face popped up in well-­designed ads that had a hyperlink to the party바카라�s manifesto. The caption read: Kaam Bolta hai, indicating the CM바카라�s achievements from 2012-17. But, there is a jingle that goes on to say Kaam bolta hai, anjaam bolta hai. That is, work speaks for itself; so do the results.