The recent electoral victory of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Jana Sena Party (JSP), and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance, securing 164 out of 175 seats, has been a significant political event. This landslide victory has nearly decimated the opposition, confining the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) to just 11 seats.
The YSRCP and its supporters, including pro-YSRCP media, were caught off guard by this overwhelming defeat. Rather than addressing the root causes of their loss, some YSRCP leaders have resorted to blaming electronic voting machines (EVMs) while some other YSRCP leaders started suggesting that voters were swayed by promises of freebies. Meanwhile, the pro-YSRCP media has cleverly shifted focus to political consultant Robbin Sharrma, attributing the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance’s success to his strategies.
Who is Robbin Sharrma of ShowTime Consulting?
Robbin Sharrma, a seasoned political consultant, has a notable background. He previously worked closely with Prashant Kishor at Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) and played a crucial role in campaigns like Narendra Modi’s 2014 election and Nitish Kumar’s 2017 campaign. After parting ways with Prashant Kishor, Sharrma founded his own consulting firm, ShowTime Consulting. His firm specializes in:
- Political Party Transformation
- Campaign Management
- Political Communication
- Technical Strategy
For the past five years, Robbin Sharrma and his team have been working with the TDP, conceptualizing and executing various programs, including Lokesh’s Yuvagalam. Needless to say that YSRCP continued to take similar services from I-PAC though Prashant Kishor left the organization.
The Real Reason Behind TDP-JSP-BJP’s Success in 2024 Election:
The primary reason for the TDP-JSP-BJP alliance’s remarkable success can be summarized in one phrase: the unity of the alliance. This alliance effectively harnessed every anti-incumbency vote, capturing nearly 56% of the votes compared to YSRCP’s 39%. In the 2019 elections, YSRCP managed 49.95% of the votes, indicating that over half the electorate did not support YSRCP even then. But still, YSRCP had a stupendous success in 2019 as the anti-YSRCP vote did not consolidate into a single alliance. The alliance’s success in 2024 was significantly bolstered by Pawan Kalyan, who played a pivotal role in reuniting the estranged TDP and BJP parties.
Why Pro-YSRCP Media Attributes Success to Robbin Sharrma
Avoiding Admission of Anti-Incumbency: Acknowledging the anti-incumbency sentiment would mean admitting to the validity of the critical comments against YSRCP and its leadership over the past five years. So instead of doing it, pro-YSRCP media cleverly shifted focus to political strategist Robbin Sharrma.
Denying Pawan Kalyan’s Role: By crediting Robbin Sharrma, the pro-YSRCP media sidesteps acknowledging Pawan Kalyan’s critical role in forming the alliance, and thereby leading it into victory.
Future Strategy: Highlighting Sharrma’s role creates an opportunity for YSRCP to potentially hire him for future campaigns, projecting a renewed chance of success in future elections.
Case Study: How Does Such Misattributed Analysis Help
This strategy of misattribution is not new. After Vijayamma’s defeat in the 2014 Vizag MP elections, YSRCP media blamed it on the “Modi factor,” and claimed that central government employees in Vizag favored Modi’s BJP and that’s the reason for Vijayamma’s defeat. But the fact is that central government employees in Vizag MP constituency are not in huge numbers and so can no way sway the pendulum to the other side. The actual reasons are – a) Vizag being an urban constituency where the TDP-BJP alliance had an edge over YSRCP, which had an edge in rural constituencies b) Pawan Kalyan and Kapu population dynamics.
But this reasoning of YSRCP (Modi factor), though flawed, allowed YSRCP to align more closely with BJP unofficially after the 2014 elections. After TDP severed its ties with the BJP, YSRCP enjoyed unofficial support from Delhi bigwigs, and that helped YSRCP in the 2019 elections.
Similarly, attributing the TDP-JSP-BJP victory to Robbin Sharrma serves multiple purposes: it diverts attention from internal failings, undermines the alliance’s strategic unity, and paves the way for future political maneuvering.
Laughing Stock: Telugu Media Houses’ Confusion Between Political Consultant Robbin Sharrma and International Writer Robin Sarma
Interestingly, there has been some confusion in Telugu media between political consultant Robbin Sharrma and the internationally renowned writer Robin Sharma, known for bestsellers like “The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”, “5 am Club” etc.
The consultant, Robbin Sharrma, who worked closely with Prashant Kishor and later independently, spells his name slightly differently (Robbin Sharrma) to avoid such mix-ups. Despite this, media outlets like Sakshi TV have mistakenly used the writer Robin Sarma’s photo in their stories about TDP’s political strategist. Though common Telugu voters might have not observed this, the readers of self-help literature and elite voters laughed out loud at such silly mistakes from Telugu media houses.
Overall:
The TDP-JSP-BJP alliance’s success in the recent elections is a result of strategic unity and effective campaigning, facilitated by Robbin Sharrma’s expertise. However, attributing the entire success to him oversimplifies the dynamics at play and serves the YSRCP’s narrative. It is crucial to recognize the multifaceted reasons behind the victory to understand the evolving political landscape in Andhra Pradesh.
– ZURAN (@CriticZuran)
