With a hope that the communication campaign run by his strategist Steve Jarding, who has ensured that right words reach the ears, Akhilesh Yadav is confident of making a comeback in Uttar Pradesh. Will he succeedIJ We will known on March 11
Early last week, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav told this reporter that the Samajwadi Party would regain power in the State. “Just wait and watch. We have everything under control,” he said. His confidence was appreciable at a time when he unfurled a banner of revolt against his father Mulayam Singh Yadav, by getting him elected as the national president of the party. Both the factions of the Samajwadi Party were trying to take control on the party’s election symbol — ‘Cycle’.
Before parting, Akhilesh Yadav put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I have my ears on the ground. My feedback is Samajwadi Party is coming back to power. We are getting support from all sections of society”. He added, “People want that the Samajwadi Party to come back to power. We have performed and have a report card ready.”
When this conversation took place, the Election Commission had not even announced the election dates. Even television channels had not come up with their poll projections by then. The common catchword was that Akhilesh Yadav is doing good job but his uncles are acting as a spoil sport. They vouched that this young man has vision and wants to do something good for the State. Everyone felt, if his so-called uncles had not thrown spanners, Uttar Pradesh might have progressed better.
The statements coming from the people of the State, for a Chief Minister who was at the helm of affairs for full term, arecommendable. There is no talk of anti-incumbency. People only talk about how a few members in Akhilesh Yadav’s family have tried to tarnish his image as the Chief Minister. But the common catchword is, ‘ladke ne achcha kaam kiya’.
This feeling was unanimous across the political spectrum. Even BJP’s State general secretary, Vijay Bahadur Pathak, said that his party has to fight against Akhilesh Yadav’s image. Samajwadi Party per se is no match to the BJP this time, he said. Maroof Khan, a Congress leader, said last month that Akhilesh has a good image. “People are talking about him, but his family members do not want him to be the Chief Minister again,” he said during one of Eid parties in old lucknow..
Akhilesh Yadav probably knew about people’s sentiments. He knows that he can return to power if given a free-hand and, therefore, he asked for three months’ time from his father Mulayam Singh Yadav. He knows that people’s opinion has changed in the last couple of months because of a communication campaign run by Harvard University professor Steve Jarding, who has been giving strategic advice to the Chief Minister about an image makeover. Jarding was introduced to Akhilesh Yadav by his pupil Advait Vikram Singh and has been working with the Samajwadi Party since August 2016. And since then, he has helped build Akhilesh Yadav’s image brick by brick.
However, Jarding is not the only management wizard who is working in Uttar Pradesh, there is another poll strategist, Prashant Kishor, or PK, who was hired by the Congress to shore up the party’s poll prospects in Uttar Pradesh. The working style of both these gurus are different. If Kishor interacts directly with party functionaries and holds meetings with Congress leaders, Jarding operates through back door. Jarding is concentrating only on image-building of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. He has been promoting the work done by the Government during the past four and a half years in a subtle manner. His 100 plus team is working only in rural areas. To his own admission, he has human or technological reach in over 98 per cent households in rural Uttar Pradesh. This team is connected with the control room in lucknow and sends its reports daily. They are in touch with district administration and local complaints are resolved there are then.
Jarding, a campaign manager and political consultant for the Democrats in the US, teaches public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School. He has been a campaigner, manager, political consultant and strategist since 1980. His clients include US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and former US Vice President Al Gore, and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Around a lakh of party volunteers have been recruited as Samajwadi Vikas YojanaPramukhs who educate villagers about various Government schemes like the Samajwadi Pension Yojana, 102/108 Ambulance Yojana and Kaamdhenu Yojana. These pramukhs, who belong to different caste and religion, act as a conduit between villagers and Government agencies.
If any villager has a complaint, they pass it on to the district administration and once these are rectified, they are told that Akhilesh Yadav has done this. This way, the message drilled in the villagers’ minds is that Akhilesh Yadav is their messiah who resolves all problems they are facing in their lives.
Besides this, the pramukhs make calls to villagers, educating them about on-going schemes and whether they know about them or not or how they can stand benefitted from them. This way, they remind the villagers about the projects Samajwadi Party Government has launched. A regular reminder makes the people believe that Akhilesh Yadav has launched a series of schemes.
On assuming command, the first thing Jarding did was to re-design the publicity campaign for the Samajwadi Party Government’s welfare schemes. Actor Vidya Balan was roped in to endorse the Samajwadi Pension Yojana and later Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who belongs to Muzaffarnagar, was hired to promote the Samajwadi Farmer Insurance Scheme.
With family feud in Samajwadi Party reaching the climax, Jarding’s suggestion to Akhilesh Yadav is that never speak ill about family in the public. Always talk about positive things when talking about family. That’s exactly what Akhilesh had done when he said that he is the son of Mulayam Singh Yadav and no one can take that right from him.
On Jarding’s suggestion, Akhilesh Yadav has written letters to all beneficiaries of Government schemes. Officials in the Chief Minister’s office say that Akhilesh has written letters to 1.50 crore people, including 55 lakh families who are getting Samajwadi pension.
With large scale preparation, Akhilesh Yadav talks about going to the people with a report card. He feels right words have reached the ears of people down up to the village level. Will he succeedIJ Only time will tell.
(The writer is Bureau Chief with the lucknow edition of The Pioneer)