They can't win elections, but they can represent the difference between comprehensive victory and resounding defeat, says Aditi Phadnis. It is clear that the Samajwadi Party is a late entrant in the call-centre-as-war-room business. It is equally clear that the Mulayam Singh-led political force means business.
As for the Congress, its war room started weeks before the election that is now underway. The war room is located inside the party's state headquarters in Lucknow, and is manned 24/7 by young people who have all the election-related information at their fingertips. This wing is the nerve-centre of the poll campaign, and its functionaries are busy putting candidates in touch with campaigners, forwarding requests and keeping everyone in the loop.
A computer system connects Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi's Delhi office to the Lucknow office and also to the Uttar Pradesh Youth Congress office. The youngsters here perform administrative functions like making complaints to the Election Commission and coordinating booth-level work, besides oiling the process of actually getting voters to get out of the house and into the polling centres. Sure, some of them will be -- in the future -- Congress candidates themselves, having gone through the process of schooling and radicalisation.
Coming to the SP, its war room is located in the building adjoining the party office -- the house occupied by the Lohia Trust. Thus, the first contrast: the war room is not inside the party office. In fact, it is out of bounds for party workers. "It would have anyway been hard to work inside the office," notes Sonu Yadav, SP's new-age media manager. Reasons: too many distractions, plus too many people keen to know everything and want everything to be explained to them."
The party's new star, Akhilesh Yadav, the SP's state president, is particular about just one thing: the names of those manning the war room must be kept secret. "See, they are on leave from companies where they work. It may compromise them," he points out.
The SP war room is still in the making. One has to leap over the building debris and rubble and climb a steep flight of stairs. Old pictures, posters and piles of manifestoes from past elections lie in heaps. Once you enter, you take a deep breath. Dark timber flooring, blinding white paints on the wall, central airconditioning and desks that would not
be out of place in any multinational occupy the first floor.