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ABSTRACT
Political campaigning in 2019 in Andhra Pradesh took place against the backdrop of a recent (2014) bifurcation of the state and increasing fragmentation of its party system. The campaign focussed on two powerful leaders of regional political parties: Chandrababu Naidu, the incumbent Chief Minister and leader of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), and Jagan Mohan Reddy, the opposition leader and founder of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). The YSRCP won the election by some 11 percentage points ahead of Naidu’s TDP, and achieved a landslide in seats in the Assembly and Lok Sabha. The major catalyst for Jagan’s victory was his 14-month padayatra (walkathon) across the state, during which he met millions of people in their villages, with his images and speeches consistently featured on local TV, and his campaign’s signature emotional appeal and poll promises popularized on YouTube and Facebook. The YSRCP’s campaign was managed by India’s foremost professional political consultancy, the I-PAC, which implemented a series of online and off-line campaigns and mass outreach programmes months before the election, and brought together musicians and writers to create the most popular campaign song to date. This campaign offers an insightful example of how home-grown political consulting is transforming election campaigns in India.
Acknowledgments
This work draws on research supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada.
Disclosure statement
The authors acknowledge no financial interests or benefit arising from this research.
Notes
1. Srinivas, “Politics in the Age of YouTube.”
2. Bernstorff, “Eclipse of ‘Reddy-Raj’”; Maiorano, “The Politics of the Mahatma Gandhi Rural Employment Guarantee Act in Andhra Pradesh”; and Ram Reddy, “Andhra Pradesh.”
3. Suri, “Andhra Pradesh.”
4. Ram Reddy, “Andhra Pradesh.”
5. Kothari, “The Congress ‘System’”; and Ram Reddy, “Andhra Pradesh.”
6. Srikanth, “United Andhra or Separate Telengana.”
7. Bonagani, “Assertion of a Region”; and Pingle, “The Historical Context of Andhra and Telangana.”
8. Gray, “The Demand for a Separate Telangana State in India”; Gray, “The Failure of the Demand for A Separate Andhra State”; Suri, “Democratic Process and Electoral Politics”; and Srikanth, “Construction and Consolidation of the Telangana Identity.”
9. Suri, “Democratic Process and Electoral Politics.”
10. Vaishnav and Hintson, “The Dawn of India’s Fourth Party System”; Kothari, “The Congress ‘System’ in India”; and Suri, “Democratic Process and Electoral Politics.”
11. Kothari, “The Congress ‘System’ in India”; and Suri, “Democratic Process and Electoral Politics.”
12. Kohli, “The NTR Phenomenon.”
13. Srinivasulu and Sarangi, “Political Realignments in Post-NTR.”
14. See note 9 above.
15. Kohli, “The NTR Phenomenon”; and Rao, “Rama Rao in Power in Andhra Pradesh.”
16. See note 12 above.
17. See note 13 above.
18. Suri, “Democratic Process and Electoral Politics”; and Baken, Plotting, Squatting, Public Purpose, and Politics.
19. Zarhani, Governance and Development in India.
20. Price, “Development, Drought and Campaign Rhetoric in South India”; and Srinivasulu and Sarangi, “Political Realignments in Post-NTR.”
21. See note 9 above.
22. See note 3 above.
23. Suri, Rao, and Reddy, “Andhra Pradesh.”
24. Gupta, “2014 Lok Sabha Elections.”
25. Jangam, “The Story of a Jailed Prince”; Venkatesu, “The Last Election in Undivided Andhra Pradesh.”
26. Ganeshan, “Hindutva Enters, Takes Centre-Stage.”
27. Yadav, “Electoral Politics in the Time of Change”; and Vaishnav and Hintson, “The Dawn of India’s Fourth Party System.”
28. Jeffrey, “Telugu.”
29. Ibid.
30. see note 29 above.
31. Seymour-Ure, The Political Impact of Mass Media; Hallin and Mancini, Comparing Media Systems; and Van Kempen, “Media-Party Parallelism and Its Effects.”
32. Thomas, Political Economy of Communications in India.
33. Ibid.
34. Kalavalapalli, “Andhra Govt Plans to Take Over Jagan Reddy’s.”
35. Ibid.
36. Grakesh, “List of Telugu News Channels.”
37. Dharur, “Media Houses Caught in Political Crossfire.”
38. Government of India, “Telecom Statistics India.”
39. Lokniti, “Social Media and Political Behaviour.”
40. Singh, “The Campaign Modules by I-PAC.”
41. Indian Political Action Committee. https://www.indianpac.com/. One crore is 10 million.
42. Janyala, “Explained”; and Singh, “The Campaign modules by I-PAC.”
43. Jangam, “The Story of a Jailed Prince”; and Suri, “Andhra Pradesh.”
44. TV9 Telugu Live, “YSRCP Plenary.”
45. Lasania, “Jagan Concludes ‘Padayatra’ Across Andhra Pradesh.”
46. Sudhir, “YS Jagan Mohan Reddy Outdoes Dad.”
47. Janyala, “Jagan Completes 3,648 Km Padayatra in 341 Days.”
48. “Padayatra has Endeared Jagan to the People.” The Hindu.
49. India Today Conclave, “Andhra Pradesh Betrayed.”
50. See note 44 above.
51. Kurmanath, “The Burden of Navaratna Promises Stares.”
52. Apparasu, “Jagan Calls Chandrababu ‘Emperor of Corruption’.”
53. ‘Special Category Status’ is granted by the central government and it makes available a range of special financial benefits and rights to states identified as economically disadvantaged. Andhra Pradesh argued that it was economically disadvantaged due to the bifurcation and the loss of its capital city, Hyderabad.
54. Janyala, “Explained.”
55. See note 44 above.
56. Ibid.
57. “Lok Sabha Elections Campaign Tracker,” The Times of India.
58. Ibid.
59. Ibid.
60. Ibid.
61. Ibid.
62. Sudhir, “Women Voters Get a Big Chunk of Manifesto Pie”; and Pandey, “Chandrababu Naidu Releases TDP Manifesto.”
63. On a quick review of the senders of the 4,000 posts mentioning ‘Jagan’ in July 2017, only a small number appeared to be posted by TDP; most were posted by the YSRCP and various media. Data are from CrowdTangle, a Facebook-owned tool that tracks interactions on public content from Facebook pages and groups, verified profiles, Instagram accounts, and subreddits. It does not include paid ads unless those ads began as organic, non-paid posts that were subsequently ‘boosted’ using Facebook’s advertising tools. It also does not include activity on private accounts, or posts made visible only to specific groups of followers. Post content and interaction numbers from public pages, public Facebook Groups, verified profiles, as well as public Instagram accounts and public Reddit posts are included.
64. I-PAC, “Ravali Jagan, Kavali Jagan.”
65. Dutt, “At 6 Million Hits This Campaign Son.”
66. The authors would also like to thank the India Political Action Committee (I-PAC) [https://www.indianpac.com] for permission to use the YouTube cover slide for the song ‘Ravali Jagan’ and to reprint the campaign song in Telugu and English.
67. The authors would like to thank Harshita Mruthinti Kamath, the Visweswara Rao and Sita Koppaka Assistant Professor in Telugu Culture, Literature and History, at Emory University, and S. Swamy Mruthinti, Professor of Biology, University of West Georgia, for the translation of the lyrics of Jagan Reddy’s popular campaign song from Telugu to English.
68. See note 64 above.
69. Copyright statement for campaign song ‘Ravali Jagan Kavali Jagan’: Non-exclusive rights to reproduce the translated lyrics and image in the journal’s print and online editions and any extensions (e.g. edited volume) was granted by the India-Political Action Committee (I-PAC) (https://www.indianpac.com/). The source is I-PAC YouTube Channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcC9txrthD4MYZfWwIwMzUA).