Chandigarh candidates’ children Saraansh Tandon and Ineka Tewari work round the clock in BJP and Congress war rooms

Working round the clock and behind the scenes, people in the war rooms of the Chandigarh Lok Sabha candidates are doing it all. From teams working on floating “issue-based content” on social media to a studio where their anchors are making videos and from obtaining permissions for events to think tanks pulling out data, a lot happens at the back-end. And those supervising the work are the candidates’ children.

The studio inside BJP’s war room in Chandigarh. (Express)

Also prepared in the war rooms are videos of jibes at the opponents, “on-the-spot reports” from previous constituencies or past incidents, key statements by the candidate and feedback received from crowds.

Saraansh Tandon, a computer science engineer, told The Indian Express, that there were 33 teams at the back-end.

“We are running the entire strategy, social media and on-ground planning from here, where the entire family has broken down the campaign among them. My brothers are in the field doing campaigns. My wife and sisters-in-law are all in the field working with Mahila groups spearheaded by my mother. We try to sync up with our group and calibrate our strategy from time to time. We all start at 9 am and till 10 pm we are at it. I handle the strategy and social media and we have teams handling each of the work with our partners, who are residents of Chandigarh and have been long associated with us. Alongside are party workers. There are over 33 teams with which we sync up every day to keep a coherent narrative,” he said.

Working round the clock and behind the scenes, people in the war rooms of the Chandigarh Lok Sabha candidates are doing it all.

Ineka Tewari oversees strategy

And at the war room in the Congress Bhawan in sector 35 are different teams. One wants to ensure the presence of the Congress guarantee cards at an event before the arrival of Manish Tewari, the party’s candidate, while another is entrusted with coordinating permissions for Tewari’s local events. Yet another team tackles “issue-based content” to be floated on social media the next day.

Teams for dissemination, social media, content making, administration, campaign planning and strategy, think tanks and various other tasks are working round the clock.

Tewari’s daughter Ineka Tewari, a 26-year-old lawyer and sports consultant, oversees the broad strategy in the Congress war room. “Every day behind the scenes in the war room presents a fresh opportunity. With my father being a national leader, a strong voice in Parliament, and an honest man with his heart with the people of Chandigarh, our mission is clear. We are committed to ensuring that the people of Chandigarh are fully acquainted with his multi-faceted personality through all avenues, including digital. Our goal through every piece is to assure voters that their chosen Lok Sabha representative is deserving, with a clear vision and proven track record for development,” she explained.

Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky’s son Karanbir Singh, 28, has taken a sabbatical from work to supervise other war room operations with Gurdarshan Singh. Karanbir is a lawyer at the Punjab and Haryana High Court.

“We have about 100-odd people that are working in the war room in coordination with the social media team of our candidate as well. The war room team also does research on local and national issues and then uses the data extrapolated from the research that comes up with the narrative that needs to be put out for the campaign. Besides that there is one team that also works round the clock to tackle administrative issues like permissions for events or gatherings, and one to ensure that the Congress’s guarantee cards are distributed and reach at the event before our candidate’s arrival,” Karanbir said.

These teams comprise mostly youngsters from the information technology sector, lawyers and various other walks of life. The IT professionals in their teams carry out research and formulate narratives and issues that need to be floated on social media.