The Making of brand rahul

But the 2014 elections will be different from the last one as this time the Congress will fight under a new declared prime ministerial candidate. And in case the BJP also decides to pitch Narendra Modi as its candidate (taking the recent opinion polls and the Gujarat elections as indicators), then it will be the case of both the key political parties seeking mandate under declared PM candidates.

Now, the casting of the vote isn’t too different from the choice behaviour that comes into play while choosing between various brands. We choose one over another for a combination of rational/ functional/ emotional decisions. The political parties are brands that pitch their ‘propositions’ to the voters and they make their choices. Hence the ‘Congress brand of politics’ et al. In a presidential system it is ‘people brands’ instead of parties, so it is brand Obama or brand Clinton in the US.

In that context, the 2014 elections could end up becoming a choice between Brand Rahul against Brand Modi as against simply being Congress vs BJP.

Taking the Congress first, the electorate therefore would need to be convinced in 12 months to make a choice in favour of Brand Rahul if the

... contd.