Campaign strategist urges Cong to begin early preparations

The “biggest takeaway” for the Congress from its Karnataka win is that it needs to always start early for any polls and put in extra hard work, political campaign strategist Naresh Arora said on Monday as he credited the party’s ‘guarantee’ pitch for the electoral triumph.
Arora, who worked closely with Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar and also conceptualised several of the party’s campaigns in the run up to the 10 May assembly polls, said he was sure that a decision on the chief ministership of the state will be arrived at in consultation with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.
“I am not a stakeholder in this process. I know that the Congress has gone through its tried and tested formula of one-line resolutions and talked to the MLAs. I am pretty sure that the decision will be arrived at in consultation with both the senior leaders,” Arora, who heads DesignBoxed, told the media in an interview.
The Congress’ victory would definitely “give a shot in the arm” to the Opposition and given the message that battles can be won head on with the BJP, Arora said.
“Generally the impression has been that when there is a direct contest with the BJP, it is the BJP that takes over. In Karnataka, it was a high octane campaign, there was an incumbent BJP government, a non-BJP party has won. I am pretty sure this will give a lot of confidence to the Congress and other Opposition parties,” he told the media.
Asked about the biggest takeaway from the polls for the Congress, Arora said they always need to start well before time.
“Here the campaign was started two-and-a-half years before elections… the lesson is that one needs to be amongst the people 24X7 for 365 days. It cannot be that two months prior to the election, you go and think that people will be acknowledging you, it does not happen like that,” he said.
“Especially a party like the Congress which has been on the back foot, needs to do extra hard work which I think was done in Karnataka, which is the biggest take away,” said Arora who has run other campaigns for the Congress in the past.
Hailing the Congress’ guarantee pitch, the campaign strategist said that in Assam, where the party had promised guarantees, there was less time and therefore, it could not percolate to
the people.