Brand Equity Quiz being put to bed

Those were the days of telephone operators. So Binny Kapur, the charming lady with the husky voice and the loud lipstick, my colleague for many years at Ogilvy, Kolkata, put the call through. It was Jug Suraiya, journalist, friend and spouse of my former boss, who had recently moved to Delhi. Jug had figured The Statesman was a ship rapidly sinking into the Hooghly and had opted to board the cruise liner docked in Delhi, The Times of India.

He came straight to the issue. “Derek, these TOI folks, actually The Economic Times team in Bangalore, have asked me to put together an advertising and marketing quiz for ad agencies in Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai,” Jug deadpanned on the trunk call. “Bunny [Jug’s wife] and I told them point blank: Not me. Get in touch with this chap, my friend, Derek O’Brien in Kolkata. He’s your man… Oh and by the way, not free…  Charge the blighters your full fee.” That last bit was added almost in glee.

A few weeks, a couple of letters and half a dozen phone calls later we were all set to do the “Ad and Marketing Quiz” in the three southern cities. Dates were frozen: Chennai, okay. Hyderabad, okay… Oops. The date for the preliminary round in Bangalore clashed with the North Star Quiz (remember it?) I was committed to doing in another city.

Not a problem. The ET folks were comfortable with my father, Neil O’Brien, handling the opening day in Bangalore. The fees were fixed too: Rs 5,000 per show. (No, that’s not a typo. Those were my rates for a quiz show back in 1991!) As seasoned quizzers and a generation of corporate executives would have guessed by now, this is how the Brand Equity Quiz started.

Life has changed enormously in these past 23 years. Three years ago, I took a conscious decision to move away from live quiz shows. I had simply too much on my plate. So while I’m very involved in strategising, question setting, show design and backroom operations, the 2,400 live shows Derek O’Brien & Associates does every year are conducted by my able colleagues. The one quiz event for which I made an exception was the Brand Equity Quiz. This was special, it was very dear to my heart.

Now, close to its 25th birthday, the Brand Equity Quiz is being put to bed. It’s the company’s decision and I respect it. I can’t do the Brand Equity Quiz without Economic Times and Economic Times has promised it will not attempt to revive it without me. So maybe one day we’ll be back. For the moment, it’s time to say goodbye – and thank you for the memories.

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

Electoral Reality of Bengal versus The BJP Hype

Ever the master of hype, the BJP is feeding news channels in Delhi that it is a “big force” in West Bengal. Innocent of ground realities in West Bengal, these channels are dutifully reporting this joke as a fact. What is the reality? Consider the two recent assembly by-elections in West Bengal, Chowringhee and Basirhat South. These took place in September and tested the limits of the BJP’s advance in the state.

When I was growing up, it was often said that Chowringhee was one of the Congress’ safest seats in the country. Located in the heart of Kolkata, it represented and still represents the urban core of our cosmopolitan state capital. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the Congress led in the Chowringhee segment with 35,998 votes. Trinamool was close behind with 34,440 votes, the BJP had 29,503 and the CPI(M) 10,796.

The by-election numbers throw up an interesting contrast. The CPI(M) has declined still more, to 8,890 votes and finished fourth again. The Congress has slipped badly and declined to 23,317 votes, a loss of 12,600 votes or about 35 per cent of its Lok Sabha tally. The BJP has slipped to reach 23,984 votes and finish second. Trinamool ran away with the seat, getting 38,328 votes.

How Chowringhee voted is an indicator of the continued popularity of Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool in urban areas, particularly in the context of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election of summer 2015. It put paid to the BJP’s hopes of a spectacular show in the city. The party had invested a lot of hopes on Chowringhee. Amit Shah, BJP national president, had even cancelled a meeting in north Bengal to come for a canvassing event in Chowringhee.

In the end, it wasn’t enough. Not even the smear campaign run by a section of the media could shake the popular trust that Mamata Banerjee enjoys. In fact, it may have worked to her advantage.

Basirhat South too has not been a traditional Trinamool seat. It was won by a CPI(M) candidate in 2011. In the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP lost in the overall parliamentary constituency but led in the Basirhat South assembly segment by 32,000 votes. When the CPI(M) MLA died, and a by-election resulted, political analysts were predicting a BJP-CPI(M) fight.

We kept a low profile and picked Dipendu Biswas, a popular local boy and former captain of India’s football team, as our candidate. He campaigned hard and reduced the BJP’s lead to a mere 1,700 votes. The CPI(M), which had won the seat in 2011, ended up third. Seeing the response to Dipendu Biswas, in a typically emotional reaction Mamatadi announced him as Trinamool candidate for the 2016 assembly election. I must point out here that the winning BJP nominee was gracious in acknowledging Trinamool’s improved performance and our ability to cut the margin.

All in all, the battle for the opposition space is between the CPI(M) and the BJP. The 2016 West Bengal election has only one frontrunner: Trinamool. As for the television channels in Delhi, they can continue living in cloud-cuckoo land.

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