Samajwadi Party hires political consultant from Harvard University

After slamming the Congress for hiring the services of political strategist Prashant Kishore in Uttar Pradesh, the ruling Samajwadi Party has got Steve Jarding, world-renowned political consultant from Harvard University, to handle their 2017 election campaign.

Mr Jarding is a campaign manager and political consultant of the Democrats in the US and has been advising the Samajwadi leaders on a number of issues.

He has been redesigning the publicity campaign of the Akhilesh government’s welfare schemes and it was on his advice that Bollywood actor Vidya Balan was signed up to endorse Samajwadi Pension Yojana.

According to him, the Samajwadi Pension Scheme has reached far and wide across the state but is not benefiting the party as many of the beneficiaries think it is a Central scheme.

“I suggested to the chief minister to redesign publicity programmes and campaigns,” he said.

In Lucknow with his team, the consultant is finalising the micro-level management of electioneering for the Samajwadi Party.

He said that chief minister Akhilesh Yadav had a strong connection with the youth and that the people in the rural areas look up to him as someone who is dedicated to development. Mr Jarding, however, said that since UP is a vast state, one strategy may not apply to every constituency.

He will also be training the SP candidates on how to communicate with their constituents and address issues.

The CM will have to get a feedback from every constituency, in order to ascertain what is required on a local level, he said.