TDP ropes in Ex Modi campaign head Robbin Sharma to strategize 2024 elections

Hyderabad: Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has engaged Robbin Sharma as the "commander in chief" to plan TDP's campaign strategy for the next Assembly battle scheduled for 2024.

Robbin Sharma is reportedly already preparing a tentative campaign plan for the local body polls and his 20-member team has already plunged into action. Mr Sharma has sent members of his team to various districts to assess TDP's status in the post-three capital environment. An interim report will be submitted to Mr Naidu by the end of this month, sources said.

Mr Sharma, co-founder of the Prashant Kishor-led Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) and the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), has been engaged by the TDP national president for four years and four months to rejuvenate the glory of the four-decade-old Telugu Desam Party.

The sources said TDP has hired Mr Sharma for Rs.150 crore. He will be available to Mr Naidu and his son, TDP national general secretary Nara Lokesh, as and when the situation demands. His team will constantly apprise Mr Naidu of TDP's status and will also be engaged in preparing district reports. The team is working on core issues, like unemployment. Mr Sharma's main task is to ensure that TDP gets maximum number of Assembly seats, around 170, in 2024. Mr Sharma has been asked to prepare counter-strategies to combat YSRCP’s caste-based propaganda, said sources.

It may be noted that Prashant Kishor, the YSRCP campaign advisor, with his strategies and campaign formulas was responsible for bringing the party to power in 2014. Despite the efforts of social media giants engaged by the TDP chief, the party was confined to just 23 in the last elections, which caused a lot of worry to Mr Naidu as he wanted to hand over the CM's seat to Nara Lokesh in 2019.