16/03/2019
Personal Branding Importance in politics: Every candidate must do branding continuously if they want to secure their position. Only party image or last time campaign will not be effective.
The general elections in India are increasingly becoming ‘presidential’ in style. In 2014, Narendra Modi’s persona weighed heavier than any other parameter. According to CSDS, which carried out a National Election Study 2014, 28% voters gave importance to the prime ministerial candidate, 26% to the local candidate, and 18% to the state-level leadership.
The prime ministerial candidate emerged as the top-most consideration for voters. With the Opposition not putting up any prime ministerial candidate, Modi had an open field of sorts. Further, 27% people who voted for the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2014, would not have done so if Modi was not the PM candidate. This fetched BJP around 5 crore votes out of a total 17 crore votes.
As many as 29.4% of first-time voters were not supporters of any party as per NES 2014. They are more likely to vote for development rather than caste considerations alone. A media survey in 2014 said that almost half of the 15 crore first time voters in the 2014 general election wanted to see Modi as prime minister.
Almost 14% respondents in NES 2014 stated that they decided whom to vote for only on the day of voting. Another 11% said they decided just 1 or 2 days before D-Day. This is significant, one-fourth of the voters who polled in 2014
