‘Thalaiva’ – a three-day political leadership, strategy and communication programme was organized by former AIADMK leader ‘Aspire’ K. Swaminathan from November 2-4, 2022 at The Residency Towers, Chennai.
Around 30 participants from different professional and political backgrounds had participated in the three-day bootcamp about politics and political leadership.
Day 1
The inaugural address on November 2 about leadership was delivered by BJP Tamil Nadu President K. Annamalai who elaborated on what it takes to be leader. Mr. Annamalai emphasized that empathy, personal integrity, life-long urge to learn and a good mentor are essential for one to emerge as a good leader.
Senior journalist ‘Kolahala’ Srinivas gave insights into how the 2019 Lok Sabha election was a watershed election that busted the myth constructed about BJP. Mr. Srinivas through data explained how the party had performed extremely well in minority-dominated, reserved, rural and non-Hindi speaking constituencies.
‘Thuglak’ Ramesh, another senior journalist set the context about the recent developments in Tamil Nadu politics for the audience.
A session on public policy was delivered by prominent television news anchor Ashoka Varshini.
Sasikanth Senthil, former IAS Officer and now Congress leader talked about Bharat Jodo Yatra, re-inventing Congress and his idea of India.
Day 1 ended with a session on the aura of MGR delivered by senior AIADMK leader JCD Prabhakar.
Day 2
On Day 2, a sneakpeek into the Obama For America campaign was given by Mr. Ramesh who was part of it back in 2012. He shed light on how big data was leveraged for targeting the campaign, the tools used and how the campaign was a gamechanger for not just America but also for Indian politics.
‘Aspire’ Swaminathan took participants through the 14 most adopted strategies deployed by political parties during elections.
BJP Tamil Nadu State Secretary SG Suryah spoke about how the party under Amit Shah had turned into a successful election-winning machine.
Former AIADMK Minister MaFoi Pandiarajan shared his political experience with insights into the late AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa’s personality.
A session on how ‘Captain’ Vijayakanth was sculpted into a ‘Karuppu’ (Black) MGR was delivered by yesteryear screenwriter and film director Liaquat Ali Khan.
The evening ended with a fireside chat between senior journalist Rangaraj Pandey and BJP leader Khushbu who addressed a plethora of questions from the participants about her political journey.
Day 3
A masterclass on the strategies and tragedies at Makkal Needhi Maiam was delivered by CK Kumaravel, the CEO of Naturals Salon and a former leader of Kamal Haasan’s party.
There was also a panel discussion on India Shining campaign of Atal Bihari Vajpayee between RK Radhakrishnan of The Hindu Frontline, BJP leader Narayanan Thirupathy and Ashok Thomas.
M. Gunasekaran of Sun News spoke about Tamil Nadu politics in general.
Ramkumar Singaram, Founder & CEO of Catalyst PR, took a session on how to successfully manage media relations.
A session on the importance of personal branding was also taken.
Thalaiva 2.0?
Mr. Swaminathan, who organized the programme through his company Asthr has said that he is planning to have subsequent editions of Thalaiva in the coming months.
He also said that there are plans to engage young political aspirants through workshops and bootcamps as well.
Do you know what the 14 most adopted Strategies in Politics are? Our Chief Training Lead, Thiru. Aspire K Swaminathan, spilling the bean on different Political Strategies. @aspireswami #ThalaivaNxt #tamilnadupolitics #leadershipcoaching #youngleaders #politicalleaders pic.twitter.com/4lw6OadpgV
— Thalaiva (@ThalaivaNxt) November 3, 2022
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