Congress should focus on livelihood issues: DesignBoxed's Naresh Arora

Naresh Arora unveils how his team introduced the term "guarantees" to India's political lexicon, sheds light on the shifting voter behaviour

Naresh Arora, election strategist and co-founder of DesignBoxed, which has managed a number of Congress poll campaigns, the latest in Rajasthan in November last year, in interview with Archis Mohan in New Delhi, unveils how his team introduced the term “guarantees” to India’s political lexicon, sheds light on the shifting voter behaviour, and explains why the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra required a specific issues-based approach. Edited excerpts:

How has voter behaviour changed over the past few years?
 

A significant change across the country since 2018 is the value that voters have come to place on their votes. Earlier, caste-based considerations or voting for a seemingly winning candidate influenced voting behaviour, but not anymore. The immense outreach by political parties to voters in the past 10 years has meant that the common voter is more empowered; voters are better informed about how their vote might benefit the candidate, the party, or its leader. ‘If these three entities benefit from my vote, then how does it benefit me?’ is a question that voters now assess. Those from low-income groups look at direct benefit transfers, others at individual benefits, and some might vote to support a nationalist cause or against a particular ideology, but that number is small. A significant factor in increasing voter awareness is the constant outreach by the BJP to explain its policies, vision, and programmes, and regional parties have tried to compete with it.
 

The leitmotif of recent Congress Assembly campaigns was “guarantees”, but the prime minister has now embraced the idea…
 

The word ‘guarantee’ entered the country’s political lexicon when we used it for the first time during the Congress’ campaign in the Assam Assembly polls in April 2021. We only had 72 days to prepare for polling day. The Congress in Assam was in disarray. Our surveys revealed that even people unhappy with the BJP government did not trust the Congress. We realised that voters treated the usual promises by political parties as hollow. We wanted to develop a message to help build trust for the Congress, which is when we introduced the word ‘guarantee’. We proposed five guarantees, including one I suggested about recognising women’s work in running their families, the thankless task of doing domestic chores but having to turn to the male head of the household if they needed something. During the Assam campaign, in his public meetings, the PM spoke twice about how the Congress had taken to promising guarantees. While the Congress lost, the idea of ‘guarantees’ took root, and even BJP leaders who spoke with me acknowledged how it caught people’s imagination. In the run-up to the Karnataka elections, when we brainstormed, some suggested a Kannada word for the welfare schemes we planned to propose. However, I insisted that we use ‘guarantee’ and replicate the Gruha Lakshmi guarantee from Assam, which we did with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, launching it with fanfare.
 

The third instance of using ‘guarantees’ was in Rajasthan, where we had time to plan a more extended campaign before the model code of conduct kicked in. We started with ‘mehngai rahat (inflation relief)’ camps where we promised 10 guarantees or schemes, which the government delivered, such as cooking gas cylinders at Rs 500. We followed it up with six guarantees in our election campaign. The credibility of the Congress guarantees increased manifold. Until then, the BJP’s campaign had proved ineffectual, which is when it introduced the ‘Modi ki guarantee’, something the party had not done in Karnataka. It then replicated it in Chhattisgarh.
 

Have the recent Assembly polls settled the revdi debate?
 

One gets to hear the word ‘revdi’ less and less. The BJP had to propose Rs 450 a cylinder in Rajasthan to counter the Congress government’s Rs 500 per cylinder, which tells us about what is working on the ground. But in Rajasthan, I believe, some of our promises will find traction in the coming years, such as Rs 15 lakh insurance for natural calamities, such as droughts and floods, or livestock insurance. Congress leaders in Karnataka have complained that the rollout of guarantees has meant little money for other development works. Do you factor in the financial implications of these schemes at the drawing board stage?
 

We factor in the financial implications of every scheme. One would never propose a scheme that might bleed the state exchequer to death. For example, the Congress government in Rajasthan implemented several welfare schemes and yet recorded one of the country’s fastest gross domestic state product (GSDP) growth. In Karnataka, with more financial resources, we proposed, and the government implemented Rs 2,000 for each eligible subscriber of the Gruha Lakshmi scheme. However, when I proposed Rs 1,500 for a similar scheme in Rajasthan, (then chief minister) Ashok Gehlot sat with financial experts to study its implications. We reduced it to Rs 750 to remain financially viable. Guarantees only work if they are delivered.

Is the Congress left with any agenda for the Lok Sabha polls?
 

The Congress should focus on the livelihood issues that the people are facing, such as unemployment, which is peaking, as is inflation. There is no dearth of issues but how you communicate them to voters is the key. For example, the Congress demanded a nationwide caste census but I did not see any work it did to reach out to Other Backward Classes to build public opinion and awareness around the issue. Similarly, the issue of unemployment is becoming more prominent by the day, and the government is conscious of the fact, which is why the prime minister is himself addressing and launching job melas. Now, you have to take it to the people and not conceal your failure to communicate by accusing the BJP of running a communal agenda; this will not cut ice.

Do you think the Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra (BJNY) will find resonance?

The yatra is a good concept; the BJY (Bharat Jodo Yatra) yielded results. As you see in sports, people support underdogs, those willing to make a valiant effort. But I would like the BJNY to be a more issues-based exercise. For example, it could have been named ‘Naukri Banao Yatra’. Moreover, younger voters are more inclined towards the BJP, and this issue could help the Congress connect with them. However, you cannot win matches with a team with low confidence because of repeated defeats. You cannot blame the captain for the underperformance of the team, but you can blame the captain for continuously picking the same team, for not fixing accountability, for weeding out experienced people, and for centralising decision-making.