Armed with graphs, charts and PowerPoint presentations, political players in Gujarat are gearing up for the forthcoming elections. The tools of corporate strategising that are making easy inroads into the electoral scape also include info-tech, which is being used by the BJP to good effect. The party’s IT cell, that was set up last year is being used not just to lure the Net-savvy, GenNext voters, but also for strategic planning and analysis.

“Campaigning is just one part of the entire operation,” says Shashiranjan Yadav, convenor of the cell, and the man responsible for the detailed analysis of the results in 182 constituencies in the past four Assembly elections. “With all the data available to us, we can now plan and chalk out our strategy with greater precision,” he says.

“Analysing the past election results manually was a tedious process, with a lot of room for mistakes,” he says, adding that the use of technology has simplified and facilitated communication with party workers. “Now not only have we got a clear picture on the number of seats which were party strongholds, but also the ones which never favoured us. And we could access all this data at the click of a mouse,” he adds.

The five-member cell, a brainchild of Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has its headquarters at BJP state office at Khanpur, Ahmedabad, with branches in every district and one dedicated worker in each centre. It is now set to assist the party in policy and strategic planning, besides launching a cyber attack against the Opposition.

... contd.