The hidden army of Indian election 'consultants'

These 'politically neutral problem solvers' do short stints in political campaigns and are valued for their data skills. Months before India began the gargantuan, 44-day exercise of conducting national general elections from April 19, armies of tech-savvy IITians, MBAs, lawyers and researchers have been busy collating, studying and analysing voter data to decide on campaign strategy, issues to highlight, where to deliver gifts and polarising speeches while pushing a glut of fake news on social media and WhatsApp aiming to convince voters for their clients. These backroom boys of Indian democracy, who have no skin in the game apart from the pay package and the thrill of a win, call themselves 'politically neutral problem solvers'. They acknowledged that some of their, and their parties', solutions to rake in votes may not be the best thing for a democracy, but they said they had no biases and were simply focused on cracking the problem.