PUDUCHERRY: For the first time in more than a decade and a half, the French embassy in India has appointed a team of two civil servants to track the Indian elections. The idea, said Quentin Navaro Auburtin, attache-political chancellery, is to give Paris a better understanding of India as a strategic partner.

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, Auburtin's focus is to help the French government develop a less-north India centric view of the elections. "So far, the embassy has had a more Hindi belt focus and by touring southern states I am trying to get a better idea of the factors that matter to the electorate in this part of the country," he said. He is scheduled to stay in India till the end of the elections though will probably return to France before the results are out.

Auburtin and his colleague will be touring different parts of India to get a feel of the "issues" that will swing the elections this time round. To that end, he met journalists, environmentalists, social activists and eminent citizens in Puducherry on Monday. "I will visit four cities in Tamil Nadu and talk to those who cover and track the elections," said Auburtin, a young civil servant who confessed he is "looking forward to tracking the elections in India in all their diversity and colour". India, he said, is a strategic partner for France and therefore it is "important we understand what people are thinking in this country," he said.

Scribbling furiously as the discussion moved from caste politics to larger than life political personalities to the freebie culture in Puducherry, Pulwama, the demand for statehood, GST and demonetization, he asked questions and also offered comparisons with French elections in terms of interest among young voters, urban rural divide and why the French like to stick to the old fashioned ballot paper. Catherine Suard, French consul-general in Puducherry, also participated in the discussion, asking questions and directing the tete-a-tete. The two-member team, said Auburtin, will seek reports and details from consulates across India for the final report which will then be submitted to the embassy.