Campaigning is in full swing for the Karnataka Assembly election next month. Parties including the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, and JD(S) have fielded their candidates who are trying to win voters' confidence in the southern state. Behind many of these candidates eyeing seats in the Karnataka Assembly are political strategists who provide them with guidance and assistance for the polls. There are currently around 5,000 professionals working as political strategists for candidates in Karnataka. But what makes a person qualified to be a political strategist?
According to BJP leader C N Ashwath Narayan, such political strategists volunteer to help candidates overcome challenges in the election and provide guidance. “Many newcomers are there. They will be requiring this kind of assistance. They will not know how to manage elections. There are political parties, who don't have cadets. They don't have people to reach out to. Some people will come out and over the table, they will say that they will provide a new solution, which can address all the challenges. Overnight mantra!” he said.
The BJP has introduced more than 50 first-timers for this year's polls and roped in volunteers to work as a political strategist. But with no job description available for such a position, the party has hired people from different professions including doctors, engineers and teachers.
Smrthi Harits, media panelist, BJP Karnataka, said all that a person needs to be a political strategist is the passion to work in politics and good communication skills.
“So, I think there is no JD (Job Description) as such as long as you have the passion to work in politics. But, what would really help is when you have great communication skills, if you are good with people. At the end of the day, politics is all about people. You need to have a passion to serve people. It's also about having that deep, burning desire to do and see a change in society,” she said.
When it comes to becoming a political strategist, trust plays an important role. KG Swamy, who has worked for 15 years as a media consultant and assisted heavyweights such as Congress' DK Shivakumar, insisted “trust matters actually”.
Mr Swamy said the trust doesn't build with one or two meetings and the political strategist is initially given “small work”. He added, “Once we start approaching them, the trust builds and they will start giving you bigger work. It could be handling surveys or social media.”
Congress leader Priya Krishna shared that around 40 to 50 political strategists have reached out to her from Mumbai, West Bengal, and Orissa. She said, “It's very simple. Whatever we are doing, they are trying to corporatise it” adding that she doubts if they are “effective or not”. The leader added that being a political strategist is an occupation or a business.