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LoginMembership has its privileges. Choose a username and provide a working email - that's all it takes to join. Click below to make a new account.Related Links+ MEET THE BACKROOM BOYS - TEAM ADVANI Management expert, techie, Johns Hopkins alumnus...+ Also by akansha
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Meet The Backroom Boys - Team Advani Management Expert, Techie, Johns Hopkins Alumnus...By akansha, Section News  With the campaign for general elections heating up, these two high-profile leaders couldn't do without their helping handsThe prime ministerial candidate of the NDA, L K Advani, is fighting the most formidable political battle of his life. With the onset of the election season, he is set to criss-cross the country as part of his Vijay Sankalp Yatra. He is also busy giving final shape to his alliance's good governance agenda when not talking to prospective suitors, both for pre-election and postelection tie-ups. While Advani has a choc-abloc schedule for the next three months, it is an agile team of volunteers, working out of 26, Tughlak Crescent office (that Advani likes to call his `extension office' as opposed to the more fashionable `war-room') that has kept his online election campaign running. The volunteers are now taking the campaign to university campuses, besides synchronising it with other off-line activities. Some of the volunteers are on a sabbatical. Some others are keen on a full-time career in politics at a late stage. Take Mallika Noorani, for instance. The bespectacled 23year-old banker thinks "it's uncool not to be concerned about politics and other larger societal concerns". On a threemonth sabbatical (she works with a multinational bank in Mumbai), she is now managing the content appearing on Advani's website. Anay Joglekar, working full-time for an embassy in Mumbai, has similarly taken a few weeks off to join Advani's campaign office. After having studied international relations at the Johns Hopkins University, Zorawar Daulet Singh assists the team with inputs on international affairs and strategic issues. Source: The Indian Express MEET THE BACKROOM BOYS - TEAM ADVANI Management expert, techie, Johns Hopkins alumnus... Click On "Full Story" For More...
A management consultant, Banu Chandar, last worked with Pricewaterhouse Coopers, but now assists Advani's team with research. Anupam Trivedi coordinates volunteerrelated activities. A former journalist, Swadesh Singh has been assigned the job of taking Advani's campaign to university campuses in Delhi. Pranab Hazarika, an alumnus of Delhi School of Arts, is the designer for Advani's website. Robin Rappai, who's spent more than a decade in the software industry, handles most techni cal matters on the website.
In their 20s or 30s, the team of volunteers is assisting Advani confidant Sudheendra Kulkarni run a campaign independent of the party activity, selling the idea of "Advani as Prime Minister" to Gen Next voters. Kulkarni was inspired by Obama's online campaign. He has been assisted by BJP IT cell chief Prodyut Bora from the very beginning in devising the campaign and also putting up the camp office at 26, Tughlak Crescent (incidentally, the official residence of party general secretary and another Advani confidant Ananth Kumar). Advani may have visited this office "just twice or thrice" (his "chat" with rediff readers was hosted here), but an apparatus has been put in place to take stock of the campaign on a regular basis. While Arun Jaitley and M Venkaiah Naidu are kept in the loop, a team consisting of Ananth, Kulkarni, Bora, G V L Narasimha Rao, party spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy and 11, Ashoka Road BJP HQ in-charge Shyam Jaju often meet to discuss the progress report. They are also sometimes joined by Advani's daughter Pratibha and aide Deepak Chopra. The office is nowadays being used for myriad presentations for the party brass. This is not the only reason why Advani's team of volunteers considers this as an important exercise. Joglekar thinks that "political communications" has not received the kind of attention that it deserves as an autonomous discipline. Mallika talks about freedom of choice and "politics as a vocation" in the same breath. She thought about working for Advani after reading his memoirs.
A techie-turned-new-age farmer, Robin is convinced that diversity is at the core of India's national identity, something that he finds in abundance in his team of volunteers. After co-authoring a book on India and China, Zorawar is already applying to universities abroad for his PhD. Some, like Trivedi, have already decided on a political career. For most others, however, the weeks spent working for Advani's Lok Sabha campaign has been an opportunity to get to know the veteran leader, up and close.
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