Code ofEthics

Political Strategy Warfare adheres to the Model Code of Conduct issued by the Election Commission of India in every engagement, from the date an election is announced until the completion of the electoral process.

Model Code compliance is a mandatory training module for every person we deploy, including volunteers recruited for client campaigns. Campaign plans are reviewed against the Code before execution, and activity that would breach it is not undertaken regardless of client instruction. Where a client proceeds with activity we have advised against on Model Code grounds, we record that advice in writing and reserve the right to withdraw from the engagement.

Political Strategy Warfare is a professional services firm. We are not a political party, a political action committee, or an organisation with an electoral programme of our own. We do not contest elections, we do not fund campaigns, and we do not make political donations.

We work with clients across the political spectrum. Individual members of our team hold their own political views, and no member of staff is required to work on an engagement they have a conscientious objection to.

We take one client per contest, and party-level engagements are exclusive within the state for the election cycle. This exclusivity is contractual, not a matter of practice.

Client identity, strategy, research and data are confidential. We do not confirm or deny client relationships to media or third parties, and we do not use one client's data or insight for the benefit of another.

Case studies published on this site are anonymised by region and year where the engagement is NDA-bound. No client, candidate or constituency is identified without written permission, and metrics that have not been cleared by the client are withheld rather than estimated.

Survey research conducted for clients follows a documented methodology: stratified sampling, non-leading instrument design, trained enumerators, and independent back-checking of a fixed proportion of interviews. Enumerators who fail back-checks have their full workload discarded and re-fielded.

We report confidence intervals and are explicit about where data is thin. We do not suppress findings a client will not like, and we do not adjust results toward a preferred conclusion.

• We do not publish commissioned research without the client’s consent.
• We do not publish election projections, forecasts or predicted outcomes anywhere, including our election calendar.
• Opposition research is conducted exclusively from public records — no surveillance, no private data, no intrusion.

We process personal data in accordance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. Contact data used in campaigns is built on recorded opt-in consent with a stated purpose, limited retention and immediate processing of withdrawal requests.

Where we process personal data that a client holds — including voter data — we do so under the client's written instruction, with the client as data fiduciary. We do not purchase voter contact databases from third parties.

Full detail, including retention periods and our grievance officer contact, is set out in our privacy policy.

We decline engagements where the intended activity would breach this code, where the campaign's purpose is to suppress participation or target a community, or where a client is unwilling to accept the constraints set out here.

This has a revenue cost and it is a deliberate one. A code that bends under commercial pressure is not a code.

If you believe activity conducted by this firm, or by a partner acting on our behalf, breaches this code, write to us. Concerns raised in good faith are investigated, and the person raising them is told the outcome.

Our team is instructed to escalate any client request that appears to breach this code, and nobody is penalised for refusing such a request.