New whizkid Rajat Sethi’s data-crunching led to BJP’s winning alliance with AGP

May 20, 2016, NewsCrunch

BJP’s new poll whizkid Rajat Sethi seems to have delivered in his maiden assignment in Assam, where the party scored a sensational win on Thursday.

In unseating the popular chief minister, among other things, the alliances BJP struck with  Assam Gan Parishad (AGP) and Bodo People Front (BPF) played an important role.

The tie-up with AGP happened thanks to some slick data crunching by Rajat Sethi, reports The Times of India.

Rajat Sethi and team analysed heaps of demographic data and the voting patterns in 25,000 polling booths to get insights into how the different ethnic groups in Assamwould vote.

Rajat Sethi 's team noted that despite not winning a single seat AGP had received 5.50 lakh votes in the 2014 Loksabha elections. He convinced his mentor Ram Madhav to press for an alliance with AGP and a deal was concluded.

An MIT and KennedySchool alumnus, Rajat Sethi, was roped in by Ram Madhav to head the BJP’s data crunching and social media team in Assam. He set up a small office with many people, who had worked with his predecessor Prashant Kishor, and went about his job diligently.

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Move over Prashant Kishor, Rajat Sethi is here from Harvard to replace you in BJP