SEEMANDHRA TD talks with ad agencies to draw up poll campaign

In the wake of speculation that the general elections could be held early, the two major political parties in AP have started consultations with national and international agencies to design their campaign and political strategy.

A source very close to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said a key leader in the party had completed consultations with Saatchi & Saatchi, a global communications and advertising agency now headquartered in New York, and Oglivy.

As already reported, the YSRC has decided to engage Mr Prashant Kishor, who helped build Brand Modi and designed the successful campaign of JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar campaign in Bihar. Consultations with Mr Kishor were almost comppete, sources said.

In a recent TD coordination committee meeting, Mr Naidu had told party leaders about the possibility of elections being held in late 2018 instead of April-May 2019 when they are due.

YSRC chief Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has been speaking about early elections for a long time back. He is planning to take up agitation programmes on people’s issues.

Most major parties engage advertisement agencies for the election campaign and engaging political strategists to counter the opposition.

After Mr Modi and Mr Kumar apparently benefited from engaging political strategists, most parties are following suit.

Sources close to Mr Naidu said the party had discussed with national and international agencies but a final decision had not been taken on which agency to engage. Sources said the party leadership was in favour of Saatchi & Saatchi.