In the small state of Tripura, where the BJP was seeking re-election, voter data culled and analysed by Neeraj and others in the NwN team showed that the party was in a comfortable position in the north. “There’s also the attraction of being close to power centres in some way,” said Ankit Lal, a computer engineer who runs a political consultancy firm, Politique Advisors, in Delhi. To attract graduates from these premier institutes, most political consultancies offer fellowships, and though the jobs are contractual and short-term, usually from three months to three years, they pay well, come with perks and the promise that their work will “shape the future”. The latter’s market size, estimated to be about $300m, is set to grow with individual candidates and national and regional parties looking for their expertise. The ability of these graduates – readily available – to manage and analyse enormous amounts of voter data makes them a valuable resource for political consultancies. But that promise has been rescinded with campus recruitment drying up over the past few years and layoffs, especially at tech firms, surging. Neeraj is one of few who made it, and is now in the league of hundreds of graduates from India’s top engineering and business schools who have in recent years joined political campaigns, usually for short stints while they wait for lucrative corporate job offers.Īn engineering degree from an IIT, whose alumni include Google CEO Sundar Pichai and former Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal, or an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, the alma mater of PepsiCo’s ex-CEO Indra Nooyi, are markers of excellence and used to be a guarantee of a good job.

Millions of students take these exams, including the JEE for admission to 23 IITs, but only 2-3 percent make it to the premier institutes. “All of us who go through the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) are good at solving problems,” said Neeraj, who asked for his name to be changed as he is not authorised to speak to the media.Īdmission to most of India’s top government-funded engineering, law and management colleges is through all-India exams. And they were to do all this while staying under the radar. Their job was to identify who was not voting for the BJP, separate them into demographic cohorts – age, gender, caste, tribe, religion – find a common concern, issue or fear and strategise how to exploit that in the BJP’s favour. He got the calculation right and joined a small team of graduates from India’s top universities who were dispatched to the eastern state of Tripura to conduct surveys, collect and analyse voter data for elections that were due in February last year. Keep reading list of 4 items list 1 of 4 The Take: What would a third Modi term mean for India? list 2 of 4 ‘Infiltrators’: Modi accused of anti-Muslim hate speech amid India election list 3 of 4 Indian Gulf workers: The unlikely voters parties are wooing for elections list 4 of 4 Modi wants to turn India’s election into a Hindu-Muslim war end of list

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