Project Management case study on the election campaign of BJP in the lok sabha elections 2014.

1. Project Management : A case study on BJP’s
Election Campaign
By – Kartik Jain

2. Introduction
• Bharatiya Janata Party leader Narendra Modi's election
juggernaut in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls is an example of
how to prepare and successfully implement a marketing
and branding campaign.
• With his landslide win in the 2014 Lok Sabha
elections, Narendra Modi has rewritten the rules of the
game and redefined Indian politics. Brand Modi has not
only captured popular imagination but also trumped
Brand BJP.

3. The Team
• Amit Shah was at heading the BJP's poll preparations, at
the centre of this spectacle was his core team that toiled
day and night for the party's victory.
• Experienced leaders like J.P. Nadda, Om Mathur,
Bhupendra Yadav and Dr. Vinay Sahasrabudde chalked out
the party's poll strategies, many young faces like Shrikant
Sharma and Arvind Gupta managed its media interaction
and digital war room at the party headquarters.
• Senior BJP leaders Piyush Goyal and Ajay Singh handled the
overall media strategy, and a task force was constituted to
handle Modi's campaign.

5. Prashant Kishor
• Prashant Kishor started an election-campaign group, Citizens
for Accountable Governance (CAG) which helped the BJP win
an absolute majority in the 2014 LokSabha Elections.
• CAG at its peak comprised 15 state chapters, more than a
thousand full-time members, and over one lakh volunteers.
• They were organized by Kishor across five domains: Data &
Analytics, Media & External Communications, Research,
Digital Communication, and Field Operations.
• They organised various events for BJP like Chai pe Charcha,
Modi ane wala hai, 3D rallies and vikas purush campaign.

6. MASS OUTREACH
• On 17 June, there was a meeting in Delhi where the names of the
members of BJP's election management committee were
discussed.
• Starting at the end of June, Narendra Modi commenced a spree of
rallies all across India.
• Gandhinagar was made the base to run the nation wide election
campaign.
• The campaign was started at full fledge, a typical day of BJP’s PM
candidate would start at 5 in the morning and it would include
yoga, meeting party members, keeping a tab on social media and
addressing rallies in faraway corners of the country. After a hectic
day, when Modi returns home, several groups of people wait to
meet him with their problems. Such meetings extended way past
midnight.

7. From 15th September till 10th May Narendra Modi would have addressed 5827 rallies/
programmes/ events/ 3D/ Chai Pe Charcha
• Over 3 lakh kilometers covered.
• Over 25 states visited.
• Unique vision for each state.
• Unprecedented innovation as seen during 3D rallies and Chai Pe Charcha
• Several Interviews with print & electronic media

8. Key Challenges
• The three-time Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi was
a regional brand trying to go national. It's not easy for
most product brands to go from regional to national, the
dilution of the only other national brand, the Congress,
and a common underlying need for change helped Modi.
• The 63-year-old was seeking to connect with the youth
considering that this year's election had almost 150
million first-time voters. Modi, who rarely chooses to
speak in English, was trying also to connect with the
urban, middle-class audience that is becoming more
politically conscious.
• He carried the taint of the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in
Gujarat.

9. Optimized use Of Social Media
• NaMo created created lakhs of Brand Advocates via social
media who worked in mouth publicity online.
• NaMo has a left no room for negative content by stuffing
all the search engines with excessive positive content, this
helped him in suppressing the negative content be it about
Godhra Riots or his marriage with Jashodhaben Modi.

10. • Information of various development in Gujarat and NaMo
growth model was shared on daily basis. He established a
transparent image by putting on-ground activities online.
• Millions of people got associated with NaMo on
Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and through his
official website.
• NaMo has 42M+ likes on Facebook, 34M+ followers on
Twitter, which shows his wide reach on varied platforms.

12. Use of Technology
• The BJP and Modi ran a tech-savvy campaign that engaged
voters directly.
• In important states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, what the
campaign managers did was collect huge database and they
worked on reaching out directly to the people.
• Modi used holographic technology to address multiple audiences
simultaneously across India. A 3D life-like hologram of the
politician was projected onto stages at a staggering 3500 – 4,000
events in just 45 days.
• Modi's unique digital events like 'Chai pe Charcha' are
unprecedented election events that put the political leader
directly in touch with people at tea stalls in villages at publicized
localities through a combination of satellite, DTH, internet and
mobile.

13. • He also used data analytics that helped raise funds, rework
advertisements and create detailed models for voter
engagement.
• Techies were mining real-time data on the elections, which
include voter sentiment, emotions and concerns.
• BJP then used this data to drive donations, enroll
volunteers, and organize resources on the ground to
improve the effectiveness of everything from door knocks
and phone calls, to micro-messaging and social media.

15. Cost
• According to media estimates BJP spent a whopping Rs.
5,000 crores.
• The party booked 15,000 hoardings across India for up to
three months. The cost of such hoardings is Rs 2-3 lakh per
hoarding per month in cheaper locations to as much as Rs
20 lakh per hoarding per month in high end locations, the
total cost: Rs 2,500 crore.
• In the print media, the BJP has bought the most prominent
ad slots across national, regional and vernacular
newspapers for 40 days. Total cost 700 crores.

16. • In TV, the BJP has bought about 2,000 spots a day across
Hindi, English and regional news, general entertainment
and sports channels. A spot in most popular
entertainment channels cost about Rs 80,000 per 30
seconds. The budget: Rs 800-1,000 crore.
• It spent another Rs 150 crore during the T20 World Cup.
The online and radio budget is about Rs 35 crore.
• According to the contribution report BJP filed with
the Election Commission of India it spent 714.28 crores,
so most of the money used for campaigning was black
money.