Naidu runs call centre at TD

By J.R.PRASAD

Hyderabad. March 29: One may mistake NTR Bhavan for a college, what with scores of youngsters clad in T-shirts-and jeans strolling about.

They are not aspiring politicos, rather, they are working at a call centre set up by the Telugu Desam to measure the pulse of the voters.
The TD president, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, has set up the call centre to gather feedback directly from the voters. The party will take corrective action immediately if the party’s candidates are not faring well.
The call centre, set up in the library building of the TD’s office, has about 400 youngsters. They dial phone numbers at random, speak to the voters and collect feedback on the performance of the candidates of every party.
The TD has employed the young graduates for a month at Rs 6,000. They are provided with a questionnaire and a local telephone directory to pick up numbers.
The call centre has 350 phones. The party’s backroom boy and Narayana Educational Institutions owner, Mr Narayana, looks after the call centre.
Sources said the feedback would be helpful to take additional steps like distributing money and wooing voters from different castes wherever the chances of a TD candidate are bleak.
“After picking a random phone number from the directory, we ask questions right from the prospects of the candidates to the schemes announced by various parties,” said a call centre employee. “We also concentrate on getting information on the caste equations in the respective mandals and constituencies,” he said.
The callers conceal their identity. Asked about the call centre, the party senior leader, Mr K. Ramamohana Rao, said, “We have set up the call centre only to gauge the people’s pulse.”