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Showing posts from April, 2014

Amritsar - No cakewalk for Jaitley

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Varanasi and Amritsar are both the holiest places for the Hindus and the Sikhs. And, the BJP has fielded its two most important leaders from both cities, Mr. Narendra Modi from the former and Mr. Arun Jaitley from the latter. Enough has been said and talked about Mr. Modi's Varanasi stint and undoubtedly one can term as it a safe seat for him even though he is facing Arvind Kejriwal from Varanasi who defeated Delhi CM Sheila Dikshit in the Delhi Assembly polls (Sheila was facing triple anti-incumbency and the state of Congress at national level was bad). Here I am going to talk about Mr. Jaitley's contest from the City of Golden Temple 'Amritsar'. Mr. Jaitley, a politician cum lawyer and the leader of opposition in Rajya Sabha is described as a calm, intellectual and a person with amazing interaction skills. One can take account of his management skills from the sheer fact that it was this person responsible for making BJP win in Gujarat in 2002, MP in 2003, Karna

A Country with a Dozen PMs

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We are currently witnessing the biggest ever human exercise in the form of Indian General Elections 2014. The election is significant because of the sheer extent of the exercise and people are rewarding the exercise by coming out in huge numbers to vote for their leaders. Record breaking turnouts in almost all states are a proof of the trend. I have always talked about the impact of regional parties in the Indian politics. Just like BJP can't do without Shiv Sena in Maharashtra similarly Congress can't make it without an external support from BSP or SP (it's another matter that both of them provided outside support to the UPA government). Whatever the case may be the importance of regional parties and the impact they make on the regional electorate is huge. The General Elections 2014, as presented by the media are tilted in favour of the BJP with its charismatic Prime Ministerial Nominee Mr. Narendra Modi leaving no stone unturned to make it a win for himself and the

Political Heat - A Case of Dirty Language Politics

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The political mood is upbeat right now with record breaking turnouts being observed in almost all the major states and constituencies wherein people are voting to choose their leaders for the General Election 2014. Talking about reasons for such a trend some refer to the massive anti-incumbent mood against the ruling Congress party while others point to the fact that the 12 crore new voters in these elections are coming out in throngs to vote. Since September 2013 when Mr. Narendra Modi was anointed as the BJP Prime Ministerial Candidate for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls the political heat in the country has risen exponentially with each passing day. National leaders, party supporters, MPs, regional leaders are all busy promoting their parties to the ultimate kingmaker (the voter) through mediums like the print media, electronic media, social networks, road shows, interviews to popular news journalists, mega rallies and private meetings. Speaking continuously for hours tog

Tagline(s) & slogans - The essence of political marketing

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'Kuch Meetha Ho Jaye', well I can assure you one thing, the moment you read the opening four words of this piece the first thing comes to your mind is of the popular advertisement campaign of Cadbury India (renamed to Mondelez India recently). Similarly 'Desh Ki Dhadkan' reminds you of how Hero Motorcycles have positioned themselves as the favourite ride of the Indians. Taglines play such an important part in a brand's life because of their recall & emotional value.  The branding umbrella today is not just limited to products and services but encompasses spheres such as politics, social work, etc. The General Election of 2014 is no doubt the biggest branding exercise undertaken in the political sphere of India. Thanks to the outreach of print, electronic and majorly social media that the field of political marketing has taken extreme prominence in this general election. The political scenario in the country can be analysed as a case study in marketing, op