Meet the MP who sends birthday cards to each person in his constituency

Om Birla, BJP's data-crunching lawmaker from Kota, maintains a record of every voter and his needs

What does one need to win an election in India? Money power, say some. Others believe it is muscle power that counts. Yet others, the more idealistic ones, insist that it is hard work at the grassroots level, honesty and accountability that win the trust of people and, thereby, elections.

But, there also are other things to be taken care of; or so it seems when you meet Om Birla, a member of Parliament representing the Kota constituency in the Lok Sabha. The next general elections might still be two-and-half years away, but Birla has already started his ground work – in data crunching.

This MP, a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) member, not only loves reaching out to and interacting with people in his constituency but also keeps a record of each voter. He has for long maintained a deep database – and that grows, it seems, with every person turning 18.

His penchant for data analysis, he informs, is as old as his electoral career, which started with his victory in the Rajasthan Assembly elections in 2003 by a margin of 10,000 votes. "It was unplanned,” he says about the numbers game that followed after his election win. “I wanted to know why some segments did not vote for me… I also wanted to find a solution."

BJP MP Om Birla distributing goodies among children at his constituency in Kota

Birla conducted a survey, with BJP workers on the ground collecting information from voters. Apart from the details that the Election Commission data capture, Birla’s survey included information related to caste, age, profession, phone numbers and the demands of each voter. The information so obtained was then classified on the basis of caste, age, profession, gender, etc, and used for reaching out to the voter in a more personalised way.

"Not a single penny is spent on such surveys. Party workers do the ground work; those belonging to a particular area conduct the survey in their area. The students at Allen Career Institute (in Kota) have made a software to process such data," he says.

After this ground work, Birla was able to more than double his victory margin in the 2008 Assembly to 25,000 votes. "The survey helped us understand micro trends. Our booth-level analyses educated us on why we did not do well where we did not. And that is where we channelled our energy, in a focused way, to address our shortcomings," he says.

The next Assembly election that he contested saw him further widening his victory margin; he polled nearly 50,000 more votes than his nearest rival in 2013.

The real test, however, came next year, when he contested the Lok Sabha election. The result: He swept the Kota seat by polling 37 per cent of the votes cast. His margin of victory over the nearest rival, the Congress party’s Ijyaraj Singh, was over 200,000 votes.

“It’s all about ‘personal touch’,” says Birla, referring to his customised connect with his constituents, facilitated mainly by the use of data collected through his surveys.

The personal touch

All residents of Kota receive greeting cards on their birthdays and marriage anniversaries, along with a letter from their MP. And, whenever a young man or woman turns 18 years old, he or she is visited by Birla’s party workers, along with Election Commission officials who are only too keen to get him or her added to the voters’ list.

On the day of voting, the residents receive a call at around 8 am, urging them to exercise their franchise. There is also a second call, at around 1 pm, and a third one at around 3 pm. "The reaction of people helps us understand the mood of the electorate," explains a member of Birla’s team.

Om Birla sends birthday cards to each person in his Kota constituency 

What next?

At present, there are around 1.6 million voters in Kota and the survey is conducted by 620 BJP workers. "In the next elections, we plan to focus on professions as well. We will classify the voters among government employees, corporate professionals, rickshaw-pullers, labourers, etc, to understand their needs better," Birla adds.