Amidst reports of poll strategist and JD(U) National Vice-President, Prashant Kishor agreeing to work with Trinamool Congress in West Bengal for the 2021 Assembly elections in the state, the Janata Dal (United) has distanced itself from the political strategist. The JD(U) has disowned Prashant Kishor merely eight months after inducting him as the party’s National Vice-President.
Talking about the matter, JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok told ANI, “As an official spokesperson of JD(U), I am telling you that the party has no knowledge about it. Anyway, what has JD(U) got to do with what Prashant Kishor is doing personally? Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has already said that he came to us as an activist. Now, if he is not interested in being an activist, what should we do?”
“We have got nothing to do with it. The best person to speak on it will be Prashant Kishor himself,” he added.
When confronted on speculations that Prashant Kishor, for all this while, was regarded as number two after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Ajay Alok said, “There is no such hierarchy in our party. We have the national president and after that, there are members and officials of the party. He is also one of the party officials.”
The JD(U) spokesperson, moreover, confirmed that his party was not planning to take any action against Kishor, “Action for what? First, let us know what the matter is. That is why I am saying that you should ask it to Prashant Kishor instead,” Alok said.
Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee who is not being able to absorb the embarrassment which she and her party had to endure after BJP made successful inroads in West Bengal during the Lok Sabha elections, and is plausibly doubting her own survival in the home turf, is looking at desperate measures to retain her position.
In this despondency, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee decided to hire services of the renowned poll strategist Prashant Kishor almost two years prior to the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections.
Meanwhile, Prashant Kishor has a mixed record as an election strategist. Though he was associated with the Modi’s outstanding victory in 2014 and Nitish Kumar’s triumph in the 2015 Bihar elections, he terribly failed in Uttar Pradesh assembly elections in 2017 where Yogi Adityanath trounced his clients Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Most recently, election strategist Kishor made an instrumental role in Jagan Mohan Reddy’s sweep in Andhra Pradesh elections.