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The information technology industry is best known for its process-driven approach, where maturity in process is measured by certifications like CMMI (Capability Maturity Model Integration). With infotech veterans Nandan Nilekani and V Balakrishnan plunging into election fray from the city, politics in Bangalore has also climbed a notch on the maturity scale.
Both Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys and former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), and Balakrishnan, former chief financial officer and director of Infosys, are bringing in highly process-driven approaches to their campaigning that have not been explored before. The best of technology platforms are arriving on the election battlefield.
Nilekani, the Congress Lok Sabha candidate from Bangalore South, has launched a digital multimedia campaign to take on H N Ananth Kumar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, who has won the seat five successive times from 1996. Nilekani’s campaign managers are leaving no stone unturned to build his public image among the over two million voters in the constituency.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)’s Balakrishnan, contesting from Bangalore Central, is also leveraging social media platforms to integrate volunteers. He will formally roll out his campaign on Saturday, when AAP founder Arvind Kejriwal is scheduled to visit Bangalore.
“I have come from the corporate world with no political experience. I think that is the most positive thing as I have no legacy to defend,” Balakrishnan said.
Nilekani launched his digital media campaign more than two months before the elections by conducting special public outreach programmes. He has been visiting select groups of people in the constituency, meeting them in educational institutions, at parks and apartment complexes. Though he joined the Congress formally last Sunday, Nilekani has been moving around the city attending as many public functions and community gatherings as possible without making too much noise.
A group of volunteers drawn from infotech companies have together developed special software to digitise electoral rolls and dig out information from the Election Commission’s database, which is being used to send out personalised letters to voters in the constituency.
A core team of about half-a-dozen people is working on the campaign strategy and were handpicked by Nilekani himself from among previous colleagues at Infosys, the UIDAI and from companies such as Google. One of them studied at the London School of Economics. “This is a watershed moment in the history of Indian politics. It is a wonderful opportunity to elect Nilekani as our representative and send him to Parliament. We don’t want to lose this opportunity,” said one of the three co-managers of Nilekani’s campaign committee.
A like-minded group under the banner “Together with Nandan” is going around the constituency to mobilise support for Nilekani. This group consists of Nilekani’s friends and former colleagues in Infosys among others. The campaign committee has engaged all platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Whatsapp, Twitter, outdoor hoardings, blogs and newspaper advertisements to muster support. Nilekani for the past month or more is running a newspaper advertisement campaign with the slogan “Nilekani for Bangalore”. He has been using his Facebook page to elicit views on how to improve Bangalore. Nilekani’s team has also launched a campaign called “Ideas for Bangalore” in which it is crowd-sourcing suggestions from citizens on civic issues. “Our endeavour is to marry the insights of cadres with technology. It is not a replacement for the traditional style of campaigning. It is online planning executed offline,” said a member of Nilekani’s core team of strategists.
The team has extensively employed Google Adwords to ensure that Nandan is visible on any website accessed from any Internet protocol address in Bangalore, be it a smartphone, laptop or desktop.
“Nilekani has the advantage of coming from a technology background. He is not bound by any restrictive views. His exposure to technology will help us devise an effective communication strategy. We have a vast database on the Election Commission’s website, which we will make use of with the help of our own software and operationalise a political strategy,” said one of his campaign managers.
Nilekani’s fellow ex-Infoscion, Balakrishnan has also succeeded in attracting many professionals from the infotech industry. According to sources close to Balakrishnan, his core campaign team constitutes three or four highly accomplished senior professionals from large software companies who volunteered. Besides, he has a team of volunteers from diverse backgrounds such as defence, sales, marketing and information technology. “Our objective is to keep our campaign costs minimal since we are fighting for the aam aadmi; thus we are banking on this army of volunteers,” said Balakrishnan. “We will use social media to some extent to reach out to the selected target audience. But most of the campaigning will be on the road,” he added.
A media manager of the AAP said, “There are some technology tools that will help us integrate the teams seamlesssly and pass on information to our volunteers without others’ knowledge. We will also use social media platforms extensively, besides going door-to-door.”
Balakrishnan intends to visit every household during campaigning, which will gather steam after Kejriwal’s fund-raising event in Bangalore on Saturday.
