Role of PR Agencies in Electoral Process

Elections are an essential feature of any democracy. Representation of people’s choice and formation of a government of the people, by the people and for the people can only happen if elections are held at regular intervals. In India we have a multi-party system and this along with the sheer number of voters makes it a huge affair. Despite having appx. 545 political parties (including both national and regional), the major contenders for the parliamentary polls are only the two national parties which have its presence in almost all the states of the country.

The country witnessed an entirely different electoral process in the year 2014. The use of media and the various other genres of communication has off late changed the mechanisms in which campaigning is done. A candidate who wishes to pitch him/herself in an election doesn’t wait for it rather he starts doing so a year or more in advance. The canvassing and campaigning in the virtual world is a bit different from how it is done in the real world. An individual may be adept at the art of convincing people and addressing a large gathering of people but in the virtual world the campaigning has to be carried out differently. There the person’s identity has to be created and an image and aura developed so that those who get to know him through the virtual world are too awed to not vote for him/her. This is where a PR agency comes into picture.

When we take into consideration the 2014 general election we cannot ignore the omnipresent Modi-wave that helped his party post a massive victory. It not only led to the formation of a National Democratic Alliance but gave his own party a complete majority which would ensure that his government won’t suffer from the pressure of push and pull tactics of a coalition government. Who created this Modi-wave and how? Any prudent person would understand that such an image makeover cannot be done in a day. When we try to reflect on the year or more beyond 2014 we would find out that this was all a gradual process. Initially there were few news and articles per week in the television and the newspaper. Slowly their frequency increased. After some time one could find the achievements of Gujarat under the stewardship of Modi on his Facebook wall. All sort of media management and coverage was done. We could witness groups which declared themselves to be fan of his style of governance but those with a better knowledge of how the new media is being used in canvassing knew the reality that they were administered by some PR Professionals. And this was all done at the behest of a PR Agency which was hired by the Party.

In the run up to the election it was not only that the winning party which was trying to impress the voters. The United Progressive Alliance was drubbed despite hiring one of the biggest PR Firms in the world. It is rumoured that the deal was inked at a whopping 500 crore but even that could not help in creating an aura around the UPA candidate. One of the Prominent reason was the delay in embarking on campaign by the then ruling party. The PR Professionals did a handsome job by bailing out their Prime-Ministerial candidate to land him a victory which seemed a distant reality at the beginning of that Electoral Festival.