When Bihar got boxed in

It is an interesting piece of political information that should dispel any wrong notions about the campaign of the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance. Nitish and Lalu appeared listless in the initial phases with the media glare hovering around the BJP and its fringe elements for all the wrong reasons. Rather, there was no time or patience for the outside world (read media also) to check on Nitish & Co, preoccupied as it was with its TRP ratings.

The hinterland of Bihar was not their cup of tea and the voters here who can do without electricity and literacy also did not bother about them. BJP's grand standing on development did not cut any ice with the voters here who were content with the pace of development under Nitish Kumar Was the BJP's top leadership so carried away by its own success that it failed to do the ground work properly in Bihar?

A flood of analyses on the recent Bihar elections has inundated us already. None of these, however, was as interesting to note as the article of Pratik Jain, director at the Indian Political Action Committee (IPAC) who worked with Prashant Kishor, the political strategist of Nitish Kumar in this Bihar elections and who worked for Narendra Modi during the General Elections.

It is an interesting piece of political information that should dispel any wrong notions about the campaign of the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance. Nitish and Lalu appeared listless in the initial phases with the media glare hovering around the BJP and its fringe elements for all the wrong reasons. Rather, there was no time or patience for the outside world (read media also) to check on Nitish & Co, preoccupied as it was with its TRP ratings. The hinterland of Bihar was not their cup of tea and the voters here who can do without electricity and literacy also did not bother about them. Insulated as they were from the BJP's propaganda, they had to rely upon their own sources from the neighbourhood.

The BJP's grand standing on development, however, did not cut any ice with the voters here who were content with the pace of development under Nitish Kumar. Nitish was showing results on the ground, while the BJP was promising utopia. The Nitish's developmental module and social justice ensured by him in small meaningful ways like reservations was more appealing to them. Comparison with other States was not uppermost on their minds. Yes, Bihar is very backward and that is why Nitish is taking time to change it, they thought.

A veteran Congress leader who had gone round Bihar and who met Lalu Prasad Yadav in the midst of the heat and dust of the elections later said Lalu was always confident of winning 190 seats as reiterated by him often: "Lalu was confident, perhaps, more confident than Nitish, that rural Bihar would win them seats. This was because of two reasons.

One because they have a road (even if it is only half built), a cycle and a laptop for the girls going to schools and the mid-day meal; and the second, because no one explained what would a BJP government give them if they voted it to power. In the absence of the local leadership doing the rounds, outsiders' words carried little weight.” It seemed the grand alliance was the only one that was campaigning in all of Bihar and throughout the period to impact the elections, he added for a fair measure.

How did it happen? Here is where Prateek's write-up throws the light. The IPAC got plunged into the Bihar campaign from March itself and the initial three-member team grew to around 900 strong team soon to spread across districts, constituencies and villages. What was the main takeaway of their brief?

Prateek explains in the article "IPAC was set up with the motto to support deserving and good leaders for political offices. And a decision to work with the Sushasan Babu, Mr Nitish Kumar, for his election victory was indeed a reflection of that motto. Our overall strategy in Bihar was to set up a methodical, professional campaign driven by the notion of reasoning and not mere gut instincts. From the very beginning, our detailed focused group discussions with party representatives, designing of the campaign song, strategising campaign posters and more was driven by this very logic.”

It is not that the BJP did not campaign. The RSS, the BJP and other Hindutva outfits involved too launched their campaign much ahead of the Bihar elections. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the party president, Amit Shah, planned to address more than 100 meetings across Bihar in two months. The party had deployed 160 raths to criss-cross the State. Its focus was on misgovernance in Bihar and the jungle raj of Lalu. With Nitish at the helm of the grand alliance, this was of no consequence to the Bihar voter anyway. The background work of the BJP focussed on caste equations, rifts between communities and the benefits of having a government run by the same party at the Centre and the State.

If the puzzled Bihari voter was looking for a meaningful campaign, he found more sense in that of the IPAC. This is how they went about their business. The campaign's central war room was set up in Patna with over 150 core team members divided into verticals such as field operations that included Swabhiman Raths, Cycle campaign (Har Ghar Nitishe, Har Man Nitishe), DNA Campaign, Outdoor and Media, Data and Telephony, Digital Promotions and Research & Communications, according to Prateek.

The campaign started with the launch of their campaign slogan "Aage Badhta Rahe Bihar, Phir Ek Baar Nitish Kumar.” Next came their campaign song and creative "Bihar Mein Bahar Ho, Nitish Kumar Ho" - the colors of the posters were chosen in order to ensure they stood out, hit the eye and reached the masses, he adds. But admittedly, their biggest super hit slogan was "Jhanse Mein Na Aayenge, Nitish Ko Jitayenge". Add to such brilliant game changers, Nitish Kumar's 'Har Ghar Dastak' programme launched with 10,000 volunteers who knocked on almost every door of Bihar households. The signature campaign helped involved almost all young voters igniting their enthusiasm.

Throw in the positive and attack campaigns of various stages, all with an over-reaching narrative that none but Nitish Kumar for Bihar as Prateek explained. Then there was enough emotional quotient, too, thrown in for a good measure in taking on the insensitive comments on the DNA, Bihar package, BIMARU State and "Durbhagyashali" people of Bihar.

In contrast, the IPCA Members from the central core team were present in each assembly constituency to oversee the execution of the campaign and interact with their candidates, and build local level strategies if and when needed, it seems. Prateek feels the digital campaign also played a key component in multiplying the effect of their messages across online users - Facebook, WhatsApp and IVRS being the key tools where campaigns were customised to fit the demands of the technology and logic of each medium. Twitter was extensively used for Nitish Kumar's communication on a real-time basis, plus the #AskNitish campaign on Twitter and Facebook Q&A ensured the Chief Minister's connect with specific audiences and voters at large. Simultaneously, the success of each campaign was carefully measured on a daily basis with rigorous on-ground surveys and feedback systems, he added.

That cooked the BJP goose for sure! Let us recall Aristotle in his 'Poetics' on the tragic hero: "There remains, then, the intermediate kind of personage, a man not pre-eminently virtuous and just, whose misfortune, however, is brought upon him not by vice and depravity but by some error of judgement, of the number of those in the enjoyment of great reputation and prosperity..."

The Duo better read it. Was the BJP's top leadership so carried away with its own success that it failed to do the ground work properly in Bihar? There seems to be no room for criticism in the party now, even from its own old guard. The IPAC could be the most-sought-after experiment in the elections to come in the country, henceforth. It may not be successful always as in Bihar or with Modi in the past. But, it has certainly raised the bar of campaign strategies.