Why Prashant Kishor could end up damaging Mamata Banerjee

In many areas of Bengal, Team Prashant Kishor is viewed as an obstruction rather than a support by TMC workers

Recently a video was doing rounds on the social media in Bengal that showed a throng of people surrounding members of political consultant Prashant Kishor’s team and forcing them to make a retreat. Curiously, these protestors belonged to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), with whom Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC ), is working in the run up to the next Assembly elections in 2021.

These TMC members, assembled at Chandrakona in West Medinipur district, were upset that those who had joined their party in last six to seven years had usurped all the facilities and relief materials for Covid-19 and Cyclone Amphan, thereby depriving the areas controlled by the old guard of these resources. Their anger found its target in the newcomers, i.e. Team Kishor, who are seen as the force behind many an unwelcome change in the TMC.

All this is possibly a new experience for Kishor, who has worked with a measure of success as an election strategist in many states. The Chandrakona incident is not the only instance where Team Kishor was told in no uncertain terms that it was unwelcome. In many areas of Bengal, Team Kishor is viewed as an obstruction rather than a support by TMC workers.

The dislike for I-PAC stemmed primarily from its crusade against corruption. It had, long ago, identified widespread corruption at the lower levels of the TMC as its biggest weakness. In June 2019, at Kishor’s instance, the chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee asked party leaders at the lower level to return the money they might have taken as bribes from beneficiaries of different government schemes.

In the following days, at many places, local-level TMC leaders faced the wrath of people, and some were forced to give back what they had amassed through unfair means. The whole thing, as it is obvious, went down rather badly with TMC workers.

Now, six months before candidates for the upcoming Assembly elections are to be finalised, Kishor’s team is assessing the popularity of the current TMC MLAs. The single most important criterion in this effort happens to be whether the MLA has a clean image or not. It is believed that Kishor’s recommendation will be taken very seriously by the top leadership of TMC while deciding whether or not the MLA is to be fielded again in the polls. This has accentuated the infighting within the TMC. Intra party rivals of sitting MLAs are taking full advantage of the situation in many places to dislodge the incumbent.

There is another factor that has irritated TMC groups in some constituencies. I-PAC is trying to wean away Left leaders in some areas, mostly former MLAs, by offering them a ticket to contest the polls, and even promising to make a few of them ministers if it comes back to power. According to media reports, I-PAC has been in talks with some sitting MLAs of the Left Front as well. The Left has openly named at least six such people who were approached by I-PAC, and the list includes names like Banamali Roy (a former minister), Debesh Das, Lakshmikanta Roy, Subinoy Ghosh, Basudev Mete and Ali Imran Ramz.

This has enraged both the sitting MLAs and their rivals within the TMC. There is a widespread sense of disgruntlement that has led many in the TMC leaders to consider the option of joining the new challenger to the TMC, the BJP. As things stand, this situation is mutually beneficial for both the TMC dissenters and the BJP. The BJP is still weak organisationally in some regions of Bengal from where almost one-third of the MLAs are sent to the Assembly. With the help of TMC dissenters it can make up for some of its deficiencies.

So, although it might be on the right track in terms of identifying problems with the TMC, that has been in power since 2011, I-PAC’s strategies might backfire on the ruling party. For instance, it has correctly identified widespread corruption at the low-levels as the TMC’s weak spot and is trying to cover up the disconnect between the party and voters by projecting Mamata Banerjee’s image in a big way. Yet it is not clear whether its plans for a ‘Didi-centric’ campaign will bear fruit or if the unhappiness within the TMC towards Team Kishor’s election strategies will derail the effort.

With Kishor himself assessing the Bengal duel between the TMC and the BJP to be pegged at 50/50, the state could test him like never before.

(Diptendra Raychaudhuri is a Kolkata-based journalist and author of several books, including the recently published detective novel Mirchi Memsaab’s House of Faith)

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of DH.