On the Road before E Day

Day 10: 360° Communication in Politics

Politics is an impulsive, emotional phenomenon – but elections are planned and cautious campaigns. At the heart of an election is communication. A party has to communicate internally and externally, to opponents and workers, to loyal voters and fence-sitting voters, to the media and to the general public. These groups are all very different and hence the communication strategy not just varies but changes and gains or loses intensity over time.

At the Trinamool Congress, we refer to this as a ‘360° of Communication’ approach. We often speak of an election campaign resembling a pie, with 12 arcs of communication: 360° split into individual segments of 30° each. These 12 arcs resemble not just different tasks and target groups, but also a chronology. They begin with the revision and study of the electoral rolls and end with the day of polling, and exhorting and bringing voters out of their homes to actually vote.

What are the 10 arcs in between? They range from kormi (worker) sabhas that are in-house huddles (to borrow a term from football or cricket) before the Trinamool team goes into the field. Then come wall paintings, which as I explained in an earlier blog are taken very seriously in West Bengal and seen as almost an art form. Closely behind are the hoardings, the flex boards that highlight our party and its message.

Now the campaign hits the ground. Arc five comprises road shows as the party and its key functionaries and workers alike take to the streets, in processions and marches. Gradually, this devolves into a more focused door to door campaign, moving from the main road to the narrow by-lanes and individual dwellings and hutments. Finally, the chairperson – Mamata Banerjee – addresses meetings, growing from smaller meetings (arc seven) to massive, show-stopper public meetings (arc eight).

Simultaneously and complementarily, there is communication through several media platforms. This takes care of three arcs and includes:

• Mass media
• Direct media
• Social media

Trinamool is not unique in this. Many other parties adopt very similar strategies if not near identical mechanisms. Where we stand out, I believe, is in recognising and institutionalising the ‘360° of Communication’ approach and hardwiring it into our systems. This has made it easier for us to categorise our duties, and to undertake a job specialisation exercise within our human resources, whether workers or spokespersons, wall-painting artistes and wordsmiths, or logistical planners.

In short, it has made Trinamool an effective and efficient machine, and made election campaigns that much more methodical.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress

On the Road before E Day

Day 9: Missing manifestos and broken promises

The Trinamool Congress prides itself on its lean, flat management structure and efficiency in decision making. This was evident when the dates of the Lok Sabha elections were announced. Within 48 hours, we had released names of our candidates, the homework having been done days in advance.

Finalising names so quickly was not just an ego trip. It made electoral sense because it gave individual candidates that much more time to travel to their constituencies, familiarise themselves with their voters and get down to hard campaigning. Mamata Banerjee feels political parties owe this – this maximum possible period – to the voter.

In the same vein, Mamatadi has taught us to take manifestos seriously and not treat them as cursory documents that nobody reads. The latter attitude is reminiscent of some other major political parties, which fill their manifestos with hagiographic narratives and impracticable promises. In the 2011 assembly election, Trinamool had released both a manifesto as well as a vision document for West Bengal. This year, we released a national manifesto as well as a state-specific manifesto for the voters of West Bengal. As is apparent, the focus of the two documents is different.

We like to think of ourselves as a rational, scientific party but let me confess to the one Trinamool superstition – it concerns the venue where we release the manifesto. We do this not at Trinamool Bhawan, our national headquarters in east Kolkata, but at Mamatadi’s humble home in Kalighat, south Kolkata. We gather in the one room that has been designated her office space. This is where it all started, and this is where we go back to for inspiration.

This year we released the national manifesto there and also put it up on our website. The manifesto was not verbose and kept simple, presented in point form. Click here to view. Do read it and send feedback.

The West Bengal specific manifesto was released separately. It was a report of what the state government had achieved since coming to office in 2011 and what was in store. The Lok Sabha polls are a sort of mid-term assessment for the Trinamool government and the state manifesto is the report card we have presented the people.

On Sunday, April 6, (unless the T20 final tempts me to do otherwise) I am going to participate in a television discussion on manifestos. I’m afraid I won’t be able to speak about the BJP manifesto because I haven’t been able to read it. It hasn’t even been released. This is absolutely shocking and reflects poorly on the BJP. I wish its army of social media warriors, who specialise in rapid-fire 140-character attacks, could be put to better use to write a manifesto by a reasonable deadline.

The Congress manifesto is before me as I write this. It appears to be a dying declaration, essentially saying: ‘This is what we haven’t done over the past 10 years, but why don’t you give us another five years nevertheless…’ No wonder people are junking the Congress manifesto, as they are the party that has had the temerity to release it.

Derek O’Brien
Member of Parliament
Chief Whip in the Rajya Sabha and National Spokesperson, Trinamool Congress