The ‘Prashant Kishor strategy’ is a tightrope walk

Following poll-strategist Prashant Kishor’s meeting with TRS chief K Chandrasekhar Rao this weekend, the consultancy firm I-PAC has got into an agreement with TRS to help the party in the 2023 Assembly polls.

Kishor, meanwhile, is in talks with the Congress, which he is expected to sync with as an adviser.

Having guided election campaigns for state elections, Kishor underplayed the outcomes of voting in five states this year. “Battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024 and not in any state. Saheb knows this...This (is a) clever attempt to create a frenzy around state results to establish a decisive psychological advantage over the Opposition. Don’t fall or be part of this false narrative [sic],” he stated on March 11.

Also Read | Prospect of Prashant Kishor with Congress unsettles TRS

In West Bengal, it is difficult for the people to dissociate Kishor from I-PAC. He predicted that the BJP would struggle to “cross double digits” in the state, and if it does any better, “I must quit this space!” he had said. While his claim turned true, he regardless quit the space.

Doing something else was on his mind. Kishor’s 52 posts on his Twitter handle show the well-calculated balances he maintained and his shifting opinions in the political space. “Excited to start my new journey from Bihar!” he posted on September 16, 2018. The JD(U) had inducted him into the party as a vice president in September 2018. In December 2019, Kishor expressed “disappointment” over JD(U) supporting CAB in one among several tweets where he was vocal against the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

On January 28, 2020, Kishor directly attacked JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, “What a fall for you to lie about how and why you made me join JD(U)!” A day after this post, the party disowned him.

Kishor’s interest in Congress was evident on December 24, 2019, when he extended “thanks” to Rahul Gandhi for “joining citizens’ movement” against CAA, NRC. He thanked Rahul and Priyanka again the following January.

In March, his two posts show a well-established distance from Nitish Kumar, while he speaks favourably for Congress. More posts concerning Kumar followed.

Kishor's last two are somewhat contradictory.

“The idea and space that Congress represents is vital for a strong Opposition. But its leadership is not the divine right of an individual especially when it has lost more than 90% (of) elections in (the) last ten years. Let Opposition leadership be decided democratically,” he posted on December 2, 2021.

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