Kolkata: In March, when Trinamool Congress (TMC) candidate Partha Bhowmick was fielded from Barrackpore Lok Sabha constituency, the party was aware that another contender for the ticket, sitting MP Arjun Singh, would cross over to BJP, some insiders told ThePrint. But the political consultancy firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) had assured the party’s top leadership that it wouldn’t affect their fortunes.
As a result, Singh was denied a ticket even after meeting senior leader and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee. On 15 March, Arjun Singh joined the BJP and is fighting the Barrackpore polls against his former colleague Bhowmick.
The decision to pick Bhowmick wasn’t taken on a whim but was based on ground surveys and meetings with MLAs.
“The I-PAC’s suggestions, based on the survey, are hardly ever turned down by the top TMC leadership,” a senior I-PAC executive told ThePrint.
From curating campaigns and deciding TMC’s election pitch to resolving the infighting within the party and choosing the right candidate, I-PAC does it all for Mamata Banerjee. Credited with helping her win assembly polls in 2021, the consultancy still relies on its co-founder and former poll strategist Prashant Kishor — who parted ways with the company three years ago — for help and guidance, if not officially but in his personal capacity.
“We visit Patna to meet PK (as Prashant Kishor is referred to) whenever we are stuck in a situation. To curate the West Bengal Lok Sabha campaign, we met PK a couple of times in Bihar and he guided us. He is still our mentor,” a top I-PAC official said.
However, this official also said they don’t subscribe to PK’s belief — voiced in an interview with the news agency PTI — that the BJP could secure the highest number of seats in West Bengal. Kishor’s statements have landed the I-PAC in trouble with many senior TMC leaders.
“Many leaders are asking us if it’s true that the BJP could defeat the TMC here?” another I-PAC executive said.
On his part, the former poll strategist Kishor, whose political platform Jan Suraaj is preparing to contest the 2025 Bihar assembly elections, hasn’t denied giving I-PAC the occasional guidance if needed but maintains that he is no longer associated with the firm.
“I haven’t gone to the Himalayas,” he told The Print. “I have been associated with I-PAC for over 10 years. But I don’t have anything to do with it anymore. Have you seen me at the back office in Kolkata over the last two years?”
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PK’s helping hand
After TMC’s landslide victory in last year’s panchayat polls, I-PAC had a huge task ahead of them — the Lok Sabha elections. This is I-PAC’s first general election campaign in West Bengal.
According to a senior I-PAC executive, the firm’s experience of seeing the TMC through two elections — assembly and panchayat — is helping it manage this election. Part of this strategy is to make people understand the different issues involved in this election compared to the last two.
“Micromanagement is our strength since we have handled two other elections here. We have changed our strategy for the Lok Sabha polls. Which is why you must be hearing Mamata Banerjee regularly reminding people these are polls for electing a government in Delhi (and) not Bengal,” this executive said.
To help devise a strategy, I-PAC’s top executives held several meetings with senior leadership. Over 5,000 TMC volunteers and I-PAC employees broke into various teams to conduct on-ground surveys, which involved visiting villages across the state, talking to voters at tea stalls and agricultural fields, and organising jan sabhas (community gatherings).
According to Arjun Datta, a core team member of I-PAC, this survey threw up an unexpected result — that voters were unhappy with the central government’s obstruction of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) and the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana funds and held Mamata Banerjee responsible. “This perception had to change,” he said.
As a result, I-PAC tailored its campaign around Mamata’s populist schemes — a strategy that Kishor originally implemented in elections in South India. This included the Mamata government’s flagship Lakshmi Bhandar programme, which helps provide financial assistance to women from economically weaker sections of society,
“Even Lakshmir Bhandar was PK’s idea, but he wanted the money to be given to marginalised sections. But it was Mamata who said that any woman who applies for the scheme should get it,” the top I-PAC executive said. “We might be upset with Prashant (Kishor) over his statements favouring the BJP but can’t deny that he is the invisible man behind TMC’s Lok Sabha pitch for 2024.”
But Kishor, a seasoned political strategist credited with innovative advertising campaigns such as the JP’s Chai Pe Charcha, believes there’s hardly any eye-catching campaign this time around.
“You see (in) Bengal… it’s the old schemes, only repackaged. The (election-winning) template is there and being used widely by political parties,” Kishor said, adding that scorching summer heat had “slowed down the campaign momentum”.
Videos & questionnaires, focus on populist schemes
Most of I-PAC’s campaigns this time focused on driving home one message — how Mamata’s government’s schemes were aimed at helping people and how the BJP-led Narendra Modi government was “withholding” funds due to the state.
A campaign video made by the firm illustrates just this point. This clip, which TMC leaders and volunteers have been asked to take along during their door-to-door campaign, contains a caricature of Prime Minister Narendra Modi holding a lash to beat the Bengali people while another man wearing a saffron robe is seen tugging on the hair of some women.
The video is meant to represent to the state’s voters how Modi and his BJP are “bangla birodhi” (against Bengalis), I-PAC executives told ThePrint.
“We’ve told volunteers that whenever they go door-to-door to seek votes, they should sit families down and show them the video first. Videos have a way of shaping people’s perception,” an I-PAC employee overseeing the TMC campaign at Murshidabad said.
In addition, pamphlets highlighting the state government’s achievements are being distributed by volunteers during the door-to-door campaign. They have also been asked to fill out a questionnaire that included inquiries about whether they had received MGNREGA payments.
The chief minister also distributed purses among women for Nobobarsho (the Bengali New Year on 14 April) to establish a connection with women.
“Volunteers/leaders asked women to keep their Lakshmi Bhandar, widow pensions, and Kanyashree (Prakalpa) scheme money in the purse,” the executive said.
A missed call number has been floated around for voters to call and extend support to the TMC. I-PAC claims to have received around 25 lakh calls on the number.
As the campaign progressed, I-PAC suggested that Mamata Banerjee pay MGNREGA workers from the state exchequer to “highlight that it was the Centre that was blocking the money”, executives said.
In February this year — 48 hours after she sat on a dharna at Kolkata’s Red Road to demand unpaid MGNREGA dues — Mamata announced that her government would transfer funds to the bank accounts of 21 lakh workers.
“We do not want to beg from the BJP nor do we want their alms,” Mamata said while announcing the transfer. “By 21 February, we (state government) will transfer money to the bank accounts of 21 lakh workers who did not get the money from the central government even after working for the 100-day work scheme for the past three years. This is my first step.”
Although this wasn’t the first time that the fiery chief minister had sat in protest against the Modi government, the top I-PAC official told ThePrint that this one was significant because it was aimed at changing the perception that Mamata and TMC were corrupt.
“The dharna demonstrated how Mamata was fighting for her people,” the executive said.
These weren’t the only strategies that the TMC used before the election. While presenting the state’s budget in February, party leader and West Bengal Finance Minister Chandrima Bhattacharya announced that the state government was increasing the financial assistance under its Lakshmi Bhandar scheme — from Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 for the general category and Rs 1,200 for scheduled caste and scheduled tribes.
In March, the TMC held its ‘Brigade Rally’ — seen as a one-of-a-kind event where a ramp ran right into the collected crowds to allow the public better access to party leaders. Here, Mamata announced and paraded TMC’s candidates for West Bengal’s 42 parliamentary seats.
The latest strategy is to divide election responsibilities between Mamata and her nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee — while the former will hold rallies and public meetings, the latter will primarily handle organisational meetings, a senior I-PAC executive said.
From 2021 to now — what has changed
On 6 June, 2019, Abhishek walked into the state secretariat at Howrah’s Nabanna building with Prashant Kishor to meet Mamata Banerjee. This was the beginning of what has turned out to be a successful association between TMC and I-PAC.
But in 2021 — days after results from Bengal assembly polls showed that the TMC had swept into power with 213 of the state’s 294 seats — Kishor took everyone by surprise when he announced his decision to quit not only I-PAC but also poll strategising.
Between 2019 and 2021, Kishor worked on transforming the party’s image and planning organisational overhaul right down to the block level.
But not everyone took these changes well. Pushback came from TMC’s old guard, who had worked primarily under Mamata and who resented, what they saw as, Kishor’s interference in party affairs.
Eventually, several leaders, including heavyweights such as then transport minister Suvendu Adhikari, joined the BJP.
Despite such hurdles, I-PAC’s work in West Bengal continued for the assembly polls: 2,400 employees, all alumni of prestigious institutions such as IITs, IIMs, and Jadavpur University, spread across the state to help with the TMC campaign.
And there was much to do. From carefully crafting campaigns to even curating leaders’ speeches, the I-PAC had a hand in everything, executives who were part of that campaign told ThePrint.
The hotly-fought state polls between the TMC and its principal challenger the BJP witnessed high-voltage campaigns and programmes.
They worked in teams, with each candidate having a team of four to five executives to help with campaign coordination, social media outreach, door-to-door campaigns, sabhas, and roadshows.
The TMC’s social media presence was strengthened to compete with the BJP. Press conferences were now firmly managed, as were media interactions. Journalists were invited to have casual chats with MLAs and big-ticket events were shrouded in mystery.
Branding became the keyword. Party vehicles had banners with the words ‘Didi ke bolo’ (tell Didi) — a campaign that allowed citizens to directly dial the CM’s office to register grievances.
Every I-PAC member had to submit daily reports, which included, among other things, records of party candidates’ attendance at campaigns.
And behind all this was Kishor. He was never at the forefront of these campaigns but stayed off-stage at TMC’s events.
It was also he who was behind the Mamata government’s popular ‘Duare Sarkar’ — or government-at-your-doorstep — programme.
Today, the I-PAC’s employees are stationed at what has now also become Abhishek Banerjee’s office in Kolkata’s Camac Street. The firm, meanwhile, has an office at Sector 5 Salt Lake — an area in the city’s suburbs. Some I-PAC executives are also stationed at the state secretariat, and over the years, the consulting firm has become the TMC’s eyes and ears on the ground.
This election, I-PAC has changed its strategy. “MPs like Mala Roy, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, and Mahua Moitra, who already have been parliamentarians and have their own teams, are organising their own campaigns. But for the new faces or MLAs who will now fight Lok Sabha polls, we have our teams on the ground. Apart from that, our surveys and data collection continue,” he said.
Also different is the pace of the campaigning — unlike the frenzied campaigning of the assembly polls, it’s somewhat restrained this time. For instance, while I-PAC co-founder Pratik Jain is leading the West Bengal team, he is hardly ever photographed by the media.
I-PAC executives put this down to the leadership change.
“While Prashant Kishor was seen in the media, he would speak to journalists at the I-PAC office, meet them in groups, and feed them information. But the current co-founders have a low-key style of functioning,” the second senior executive told ThePrint.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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