Contesting for LSP

I recently watched a speaker who was a contestant to Congress (Lower house of US Legislature) here. Some of his inputs are applicable to LSP and are summarized here. I thought the following might be a naive, repeated yet relevant reading for every LSP contestant.

Desire
The first thing needed to become a contestant in politics is desire and ambition - to become an MLA (or a Ward Member). If you are embarrassed or uncomfortable admitting - "My ambition in life is to be an MLA", you should not contest. It does not matter if you have ideas to change the politics, if you are a capable administrator, if you are great with civics and economics, if you are angry about the current policies, if you are better educated than an opponent, if you want to dedicate you life to betterment of your citizens - all this is not enough. The decision to contest is about you, about your desire, your ambition, your want, your selfishness.

Circumstances
You might have a strong desire to be an MLA; but campaigning is a demanding job. It requires 100% dedication. Your desire should take the highest priority in your life. Your obligations like work, family, friends, finances, passions, hobbies, health problems should not cause any problems for your campaign. Elections are also demanding emotionally - there will be smear campaigns, there will be frustrations - You will need the full unconditional support of family, finances and friends.

Knowledge
As a contestant, you are expected to have atleast a rudimentary knowledge of civic administration in India, economics, sociology, public services, resource management, marketing, journalism, current affairs, global politics, national politics, public organization, management, relevant GOs and bills in assembly and parliament. If you do not fully understand LSP ideology, it's specific details, subsidiarity principles, third tier governance, welfare economics, it is better to devote time to study and learn rather than jump in. There is a differene between believing in LSP principles and knowing how LSP principles work.

Timing
Once you decide to contest, regardless of whether you get the ticket or not, timing the campaign as early as possible is crucial. The campaign for local elections starts at least one year before in US, which is largely clean politics. If there is not much local support for LSP in your area, the campaign should start even earlier. Please do not expect to win by doing rigorous campaigning a month before the elections, regardless of how effective you have canvassed your constituency. It is not the intensity, nor the coverage, but the duration of the campaign that will have a marked effect. Campaign should not begin by notification of elections or getting the party ticket; it should start six months before.

Team
All campaigns begin by selecting a core campaign team. The desire and ambition of all team members should be to win the election. They should be able to dedicate 100% to the campaign, just like the you. Do not expect anything from the party other than a united manifesto. Your core team is infinitely more important to your chances of winning than the party. There would be specific duties that some team members will be expected to perform; if they don't you should have no qualms about letting them go. Select people who have different ideas than you. Remember that you do not manage your team, your team manages you.

Exposure
You and your team should try to maximize your exposure. This is not necessarily better press coverage. There will be some public events every week - school functions, book reviews, trade exhibitions, coorporate openings, NGO service camps, college parties. Even if you dont have a chance to give a speech, attend every one of them - major or minor. Meet as many people as you can. Get to know the public speakers in these functions intimately, regardless of whether you agree with them on some issues - they will be very useful to you. Expand your contacts, listen to them, make an impression on them. If you are not known by atleast 1000 'influential' contacts in your ward intimately, your contest is a joke.

Vote bank
Vote bank politics is not bad - vote bank politics based on caste, creed is bad. For LSP, educated voters are the vote bank. Maximize your concentration on them. Make it a point to meet as many of them personally in door to door campaigns as possible. Create a list of all such voters, including their addresses and phone numbers. Your exposure and your contacts should help your team compile such a database. This database is extremely important to your elections. Use festivals, holidays as ruse to call them personally through your team. Maintain contact with them, take their feedback, keep getting back to them every week.

Feedback
During your team's interaction personally with people, compile the specific problems that each individual has. Note every problem, and maintain that database. Use the information in the database when you follow up with them. Follow up with your vote bank is a must. Remembering and discussing their specific problems during follow up gives them assurance about you. Based on the compilation, identify the most common problems, and prepare your common talking points. Keep repeating the same common talking points in all public speeches - repeat the same rhetoric until you yourself get bored of it.

Study
You should study how the local administration works, which office handles which matters, who is the officer incharge for specific things. From the feedback, make an effort to identify the root cause of each specific problem, and come up with specific solution. Do not rely on the party's general solutions to general problems. You have to make an individual effort to come up with atleast identifying the administrative processes & officials who are involved. Add this information to your database.

Oration
Oration is not necessarily about speeches. Speeches rarely compell people to vote for you. It is the personal talks in door to door campaigns, and following that up with personal calls that can sway them. Listen to them completely, empathise with them by listing out similar experiences you had, point out the local problems with specific officers in the administration, specific rules & laws that you think are the issues, specific causes of their problems. Do not use the common talking points or party's talking points when talking personally to people, instead cite specific details. You need not tell them how you will solve their problems, but you should show them that you understand the causes of the problem.

Ticket
You should have already made a good progress on the above tasks before the notification of elections comes up. By this time, if you do not have complete confidence that you will win the election, do not even consider fighting for the party ticket. This will help your own chances in future. Getting a ticket and loosing election will hurt you more politically. Nobody likes a looser. It is safer to not asking for a ticket and supporting a more popular candidate. Doing this will help you in the long run.

Campaign season
After notification of elections, you will know who your opponents are. Resort to negative campaigning by listing out how you are better, and how your opponents are inferior. At the same time, maitain contact with your list of vote bank voters. This is the time to recruit some of them as volunteers. Use these volunteers to expand your list. This is also the time to use publicity material like flyers, etc. Make full use of party funds for all publicity material.

Generic voters
Do not concentrate on voters of a different vote bank until you have the party ticket. With these voters, your best bet is to use public speeches using common talking points, party's talking points and negative campaigning. You cannot sway these people by citing specific solutions or by door to door campaigns - so do not waste your resources. Instead concentrate on personal campaigning to your vote bank, and public campaigning to other vote banks. Note that as LSP candidate, you cannot compete with other parties in public campaigning - so make efficient use of your money. Invest in cheaper tactics like flyers and posters as opposed to meetings and speeches. Make best use of negative campaigning in posters.

Final run
Just before the close of campaign season, follow up with all of your vote bank voters. Remind them of the importance of vote, and urge them personally on phone to vote. Ask them to take atleast two other voters along with them to polling station. Tell them how you are relying on them individually to win the elections. Make them feel that they individually are key for you to win the elections. You will loose elections only because your vote bank did not vote for you; not because you failed to convince the other vote banks.