PK's micro-targeting strategy rules the roost in AP politics

Vijayawada: It is not yet election time in Andhra Pradesh. Yet, the daily dose of political arguments one hears now has reached a peak with the ruling YSRCP targeting the Opposition, primarily through its welfare measures and the latter switching gears in highlighting the 'misrule' of YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

West Bengal is a state which is always in a campaign mode thanks to the mercurial nature of Mamata Banerjee. Telangana too caught up similarly with the decision of its Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to go national and hence taking on the BJP through relentless targeting of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Whatever might have been the contribution of Prashant Kishore in egging on the politicians towards aggressive politics, it is clear that AP political parties have adopted micro-targeting as a cutting edge political campaign technique.

Micro-targeting succeeds when each one identifies a specific target for persuasion and mobilisation (of public opinion). The Opposition cutting across party lines is targeting the "highly undemocratic and autocratic rule" of Jagan Mohan Reddy in which its leaders are being harassed day in and day out. The role of police is always highlighted while the low level of political discourse is cited to strike emotive chords with the voters.

It carefully chooses to highlight the role of a few ruling party leaders like R K Roja and Kodali Sri Venkateswara Rao (Nani) accusing them of demeaning the Legislature by word and gesture. The ruling party cites equally strident voices of some TDP leaders and the Jana Sena chief, Pawan Kalyan.

Political observers feel that such a campaign has a particular goal to reach out to different targeted voter segments. The ruling party is highly aggressive in publicising its welfare measures and the direct benefit transfers in the last three years. It has carefully designed these to give away thousands of crores as announced in its manifesto.

All this is a business strategy which derives its strength from the Republican political campaigns of the US. The YSRCP has tailored its political advertising to potential voters based on their specific demographics and political leanings. In addition, it also ensures that release of every tranche of money transfers is highly visible to voters. The CM himself keeps harping on those continuously.

PK's contribution is quite visible here in the form of statistical techniques and in building detailed voter profiles. While getting the vote is the primary purpose of the ruling party's micro-targeting, persuasion targeting by the Opposition highlights the 'uncouth' behaviour of the ruling party leaders to strike an emotive chord with the voters.

The impact of such persuasion is reflected in the language aggression of the followers of Jana Sena and the TDP now. An insult is rewarded with another in the process. Belligerence and hostilities only increase in the days to come due to these borrowed techniques. Political leaders like Roja, Kodali Nani and Pawan Kalyan become more relevant to the voters in judging the morality politics in the process.