Kingmaker no more: Prashant Kishor takes a hit
New, Delhi, March 11: After 2014, Prashant Kishor was the go-to man for an election strategy. But one Saturday wiped off what used to be a very impressive record.
His consultant, the Congress party, did win in Punjab but that’s being primarily attributed to Captain Amarinder Singh's electioneering skills. As far as Uttar Pradesh is concerned, Mr Kishor's planning has been a disaster. In fact, it was Kishor who had urged the Congress leadership to consider the alliance with with the Samajwadi Party in the state. It was his idea that Rahul Gandhi and company fight the elections with Akhilesh Yadav — a man caught in a volatile family feud that drowned out the alliance's message to the people.
The tactics failed and now, Mr Kishor is being partly held responsible for one Congress' biggest electoral defeats. Analysts say the plans sank not just one but two political forces and two separate leaders. The suggestion to go ahead with the alliance is also being seen as one of the worst political decisions of the year. It also brings into doubt Mr Kishor's ability to read correctly data from the ground. If the SP-Congress tag team was a disaster from the start, early readings of the constituencies and the polling public should have revealed so. But Mr Kishor, or his employers, had no clue.
“Our alliance is winning, such exit polls we saw in Bihar also. Will talk tomorrow,” Rahul Gandhi had said on Friday, a day before the results.
“The UP polls have proved that even somebody like Prashant Kishor can go wrong. It is obvious his strategies failed,” Praveen Rai, Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), was quoted as saying in reports.
Nobody summed up the fiasco better than actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal. "Can anyone find out where is Prashant Kishore?" he wrote on Twitter.
“Has Prashant Kishor uploaded his resume on LinkedIn?" read another tweet.
The only message from Mr Kishor was a tweet praising AAP. He said AAP was one the toughest competitors his team has ever faced. He also congratulated Amarinder Singh, Congress’s chief ministerial candidate, for party’s victory.