Pune: A visit to the party offices of any contesting candidates these days is nothing short of a battleground. Strategists are engaged in crafting slogans, designing manifestos, planning strategies to reach out to voters, constantly sending content for social media, telecalling voters, and much more. A quintessential social media team for almost all candidates consists of no fewer than 100 individuals, fixated on computer screens, meticulously crafting and orchestrating campaigns for candidates.

In recent times, social media has emerged as the focal point, necessitating an increased emphasis on devising strategies to engage with voters across contemporary platforms. Poll strategists of each party are continuously providing feedback from the battleground to the war room team, based on which online campaigns are prepared. Shashank Bhise, a consultant with Sunrise Analytics, said, "We are currently working with some NCP (SCP) candidates to collect data, conduct surveys, and give recommendations to the leadership regarding sentiment of the voters.

We are working 24x7, as the majority of campaign runs on social media, so there are no breaks." At the party office in Kharadi established by NCP (SCP) candidate Bapu Pathare for Wadgaon Sheri constituency, the team is engaged in telesurveys with the electorate, inputting data into software, scrutinising social media content, and trying to discern public sentiment to formulate campaign strategies. Pathare said, "We are using surveys and.