Back in September, when the rift in Samajwadi Party was in its infancy, Akhilesh Yadav had a tête-à-tête with Harvard Professor Steve Jarding for his election campaign, as The Times of India reported.
Jarding was roped in to help chalk out his election campaign for the polls beginning on 11 February. Jarding’s former clients include Hillary Clinton, former US Vice-President Al Gore and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
With just over a month for the polls to begin, Akhilesh is the front runner for becoming the CM of the state, for the second time.
A public policy professor at the Harvard Kennedy School, some of his previous clients include Hillary Clinton, former US Vice-President Al Gore and Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.
Jarding started work on a publicity campaign for the government’s welfare schemes, taking on board Vidya Balan to endorse the Samajwadi Pension Yojana. He has already been to Lucknow five times to get a better sense of the state for the campaign, as HuffPost reported.
Samajwadi Pension Scheme has reached far and wide, but the problem is that the beneficiaries don’t know whether it is a state scheme or central. So I suggested to the Chief Minister that the publicity programmes and campaigns be redesigned.Steve Jarding, Professor at Harvard Kennedy School
The professor had said that the rural youth have a “great connect” with Akhilesh Yadav, whom they see as someone “dedicated to development”.
On his strategy for the most populous Indian state, he said a universal manifesto would not likely to work there. He said Yadav received feedback from different regions on what their issues and non-issues are and a plan will have to be worked accordingly, that appeals to the various regions individually.
Lakhs of party workers have been recruited from the state who are connected to the Lucknow office of Steve Jarding & Partners via smartphones and act as ambassadors of various schemes.
Candidates have received training from him on how they should appeal to voters in their constituencies, especially on expanding the focus beyond Yadavs and Muslims. Those being targeted are the youth, non-Jatav Dalits, women, and those whose businesses have been hit by demonetisation.
They are also focusing on getting a new symbol, which the buzz suggests could be the ‘motorcycle’.
(Source: The Times of India, HuffPost)
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