An Indian political strategist is making waves in US, ala PK

New Delhi: After Prashant Kishor carved a niche for himself being election strategist of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha elections and lately Nitish Kumar in Bihar, another man of Indian origin is making waves as political and social strategist of Republican candidate Donald Trump in United States Presidential elections.

With world getting confined on social media and sites like Facebook, Twitter and others are emerging as a bigger tool for attracting youths towards politics, Lucknow-educated Avinash Iragavarapu has been hired by Trump to strategise his campaign ahead of Presidential elections in US.

• The 30-year-old electrical engineer-turned-entrepreneur-turned political campaign manager hails from Rajahmundry district in Andhra Pradesh.
• He is an MBA graduate from Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, the capital of largest state of India.
• He was an entrepreneur before being part of the Republican Party.
• Avinash Iragavarapu had supervised election campaign of YSR Reddy in Andhra Pradesh after quitting his job with HCL Technologies Limited in New Delhi.
• Iragavarapu was at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio where Donald Trump was officially nominated the Republican Party’s candidate for the upcoming Presidential election.
• His talent of political communication skills found place in 2014 when he went Arizona for holidaying with his wife, who was then working for an Intel based company.
• He was roped in to make the strategy for Doug Ducey in the Arizona Governor elections of 2014.
• Ducey had become the Governor in November 2014, defeating Fred DuVal Iragavarapu was credited with the sound strategy on social media campaigning.
• Iragavarapu will also oversee state-level and national polls that include the Senate elections, where John McCain is reseeking his election.

‘Making America Great Again’

• Avinash is now strategising the ‘Making America Great Again’ campaign of US Presidential candidate Donald Trump.
• His campaign is projecting the nationalism and nationalist approach of Trump.

On similarities between Modi and Trump

“We have a lot of similarities with Modi’s campaign. Like Trump, he too is a nationalist. The media was dead against Modi, as it is against Trump, and Modi was written off too, and the same is happening with Trump. Look at the Brexit results too, nationalism is a global trend and is growing everywhere,” Avinash said to English daily about how tough or easy is to design campaign for Trump.