NEW DELHI: Shantanu Singh, director of the political consultancy that worked with TDP to bring it back to power, spoke with The Sunday Guardian.
In June 2019, the Telugu Desam Party was looking at political oblivion. Months after leaving the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance, it lost power in the Assembly elections and its share in the Lok Sabha was reduced from 15 Members of Parliament to just three. Five years later, the. N. Chandra Babu-led TDP has emerged as the kingmaker in Delhi while returning to power in Andhra.
The Sunday Guardian spoke to Shantanu Singh, the director of Showtime Consulting, a political consultancy that worked with TDP to bring it back to power. Edited excerpts.
Q: Showtime Consultancy started working with the TDP in 2019. This was after the party was reduced to 23 Assembly seats and three Lok Sabha MPs. What was the mandate that was given to you by Nara Chandrababu Naidu?
A: He wanted us to offer his party a professional analysis on what went wrong in 2019 and chart a winning strategy. Nara Chandrababu Naidu has been a politician for the last four decades, with an excellent growth track record. He is hailed as a visionary leader and is known internationally. Be it in power or in opposition, he never stopped thinking of the betterment of the people of his state and wished to continue to do more for them. Our focus was to identify and address the factors that did not resonate with the people of the state the last time. At the same time, we maintained our core goal of connecting with the people and working on their concerns, addressing them and most importantly sending out the message that TDP truly represents the aspirations of the people.
Q: TDP had a big electoral setback in 2019. Moreover, Jagan Mohan Reddy was being assisted by I-PAC (Indian-Political Action Committee). How big was the challenge?
A: The challenge was enormous as YSRCP had won big in 2019 decimating TDP to a mere 25 in the Assembly. At the time, TDP did not have an experienced political consultancy backing it.
After its win, the YSRCP was ahead in terms of social media, narrative setting and dominated popular perception with its welfare schemes. It was a huge challenge for us to counter that perception and turn it around in TDP’s favour. We started by focusing on party restructuring and communications targeting the Jagan government for its destructive decisions and vanity projects. Another big challenge was regime hostility as TDP cadres were being intimidated and targeted. Our surveys indicated that anti-incumbency had begun to brew quite early on as people drew constant comparisons between YSR and his son (Jagan) and found that he was different and they disapproved of his vendetta politics—however, people were afraid to speak out and share their issues at the time. YSRCP’s volunteer system was yet another force we had to counter.
Q: What were the three biggest challenges that you came across once you started advising TDP?
A: Regime hostility—leaders and people speaking out against the government’s adverse policies were being openly targeted. Second, the polarized media, controlled and influenced by the YSRCP, made it challenging for us to reach people across the state. Despite this, we successfully managed to break through by running impactful campaigns which garnered huge media coverage.
Third, managing multiple campaigns simultaneously across the state was a significant challenge. Showtime took on this task, ensuring each campaign received equal attention and successfully navigating through the complexities
Q: Were your inputs taken by Nara Chandrababu Naidu while deciding on whether to ally with the BJP or not for 2024? What was your suggestion?
A: Decisions between political parties are made on various grounds. As a consultancy, we help leaders plan and navigate election strategies. While we offer suggestions, the final decisions are up to the clients. Nara Chandrababu Naidu is a seasoned politician and fully capable of making the best decisions for the greater good of the party and the people of the state.
Q: How did 23 seats become 136 seats? What did Showtime do?
A: The challenge was great and therefore the efforts required were greater—we ran almost 14-15 campaign formats throughout the campaign and changed gears. We focused on establishing a solid connect with the people and allowed their opinions to shape our strategies unlike a top-down approach. Despite many adverse decisions, YSRCP continued to maintain its hold on public opinion—we broke it with a series of on ground and online campaigns holding it accountable and highlighting its failures.
Simultaneously, we started focusing on comparative accounts between two regimes—how AP progressed under the two leaders. Unlike YSRCP’s leader-centric approach, we adopted a people-centric approach throughout taking TDP to people rather than the other way around—be it Nara Lokesh’s visits to families of volunteers who died in political violence and his Yuva Galam padayatra; be it NCBN’s visit to cyclone-hit farmers, be it his visit to a vandalised Ram Mandir in Vizianagaram—compare this to Jagan Reddy’s prince in the ivory tower image. Anti-incumbency had been brewing since 2020—Amaravati issue, Covid management, economy issues, unemployment, agriculture, law and order, Polavaram and other projects, agricultural distress—we ensured that for every negative point given to YSRCP for its failures, a positive sympathy point was gained for CBN as a better administrator.
Finally, the anti-incumbency further consolidated and got cemented with CBN’s arrest in September—we successfully maintained this momentum of sympathy and support further with Nijam Gelavali Yatra until April.
We ran multiple campaigns and yet ensured that every single Assembly segment had its own customised strategy and narrative down to the booth level—our highly efficient team consisting of data analysts, researchers, media and digital communication specialists left no stone unturned—the on ground campaigns kept cadre motivated and energised until the last vote was cast.
AP is known for its campaign songs and we launched a few very memorable ones balancing positive and negative campaigning—one is “Psycho povali cycle ravali”, another being “Babunu Malli Rappiddham” closer to elections. This was possible because we set up a one-of-a-kind Central Command Centre—a centrally managed two-tier tea set up that ensured seamless communication and coordination between different verticals
Q: What now? Which state election, or with which political party is Showtime collaborating next?
A: As a political consulting firm, we will continue to strive to put people back in the centre of politics and craft winning strategies for our clients.