Mumbai: Innovative campaigns, door-to-door canvassing and a bold image makeover for party chief Ajit Pawar, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has lined up several strategies for the upcoming assembly elections after its dismal performance in the state in the general election.
The breakaway faction of the NCP, the party founded by Ajit’s uncle Sharad Pawar, wishes to contest at least 70 seats in the 288-member Assembly.
The nephew, who is deputy chief minister along with the BJP’s Devendra Fadnavis in the ruling Mahayuti coalition with Eknath Shinde of the Shiv Sena as chief minister, is looking at a haul of 50 to 60 seats in November, party sources told ThePrint.
For that, Ajit Pawar must be projected as an able administrator and a man of his word, sources said, adding, “…this is to shake off any negative image and portray him for what he is.”
The party has roped in Naresh Arora, who co-founded a political campaign company called DesignBoxed, as a strategist. The company has worked with the Congress in several states, including Assam, Karnataka and Rajasthan. Party sources believe a professional hand might do the trick.
“He (Ajit Pawar) has been kingmaker long enough. He might just be the king this time,” a source in the NCP said, quoting Naresh Arora’s submissions in an internal meeting.
Currently, the Ajit Pawar-led faction has 42 MLAs and will face a formidable challenge from NCP (Sharadchandra Pawar) and its resurgent Maha Vikas Agadhi (MVA) partners, the Congress and the Uddhav Thackeray Sena.
In the Lok Sabha elections, the Ajit Pawar faction managed to win only one of the four seats it contested, and the loss of Ajit Pawar’s wife Sunetra in Baramati to his cousin Supriya Sule only added to its distress.
However, the party saw a silver lining in the outcome of the recently-concluded MLC elections with both of its candidates being elected to the Upper House of the state legislature along with four of the Shinde-led Shiv Sena and two of the BJP.
Multipronged rebranding strategy
The Ajit Pawar-led NCP has devised a blueprint to reach out to voters through door-to-door canvassing, underscoring all popular schemes that Ajit Pawar announced as finance minister of the state.
The party has set an ambitious target of a strike rate of up to 70 percent. NCP has strong candidates so this should not really be a problem, claimed the party source quoted earlier.
The party has also planned innovative campaigns over the next three months, digital and media connect with special emphasis on how Ajit Pawar “has not changed” after breaking away from his uncle and how he is still “hard-working and a people’s leader”.
This is a battle of survival and performance, the source added.
(Edited by Tikli Basu)
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