PRASHANT KISHOR ADMITS BJP SURGING IN BENGAL, TMC ON THE BACK FOOT

According to sources in Kishor’s I-PAC, all of their surveys have shown that there is major anti-incumbency against the Mamata Banerjee government.

In what is likely to cause massive demoralisation to the Trinamool Congress cadre and indicate the possible outcome of the West Bengal elections, TMC’S election strategist, Prashant Kishor, in an audio conversation with a group of select “journalists”, admitted that his own electoral surveys, which he did to gauge the mood of the people of the state, found that the majority of the people were gravitating towards the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The said conversation, which was then shared online by Twitter users and members of the BJP even as polling was to begin for the fourth phase for 44 seats on 10 April, took place on the live audio conversation platform “Clubhouse” on the night of 9 April.

These revelations are likely to have deep electoral repercussions for the TMC and have come at a time when voting is yet to take place on 159 seats.

The BJP campaign team, as per one of its members, has started sharing the said audio tape among its cadre to “energise” them further.

In the said conversation between Kishor, who is looking after the Mamata Banerjeeled TMC’S campaigning, and a few journalists, the former is heard admitting that a large section of the people in Bengal are voting for BJP and that the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is “huge” in the state, indicating that there is a massive chance of the BJP of coming to power in the state this time around.

According to the audio, Kishor, while talking to the group of journalists, said, “People in Bengal are voting in the name of Modi, they are voting based on the fact that they are Hindus. Modi is very popular here and he is popular among the Hindispeaking population, which is about one crore in Bengal. There are 27% SCS in Bengal and they will all vote for BJP. The Matua community will also be predominantly voting for BJP and there is huge polarisation and a massive anti-incumbency against the TMC which is working in favour of the BJP.”

He went on to add that according to the surveys they (I-PAC) were doing, it came up that people were predominantly saying that they felt it was the BJP that was going to form the next government in Bengal.

Later on Saturday morning, Kishor, while indirectly admitting that the conversation did happen, tweeted that the BJP had shared only parts of the conversation.

During the free-wheeling conversation on Clubhouse, Kishor, while responding to queries posed by journalists that included “how and when does the West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee find time to use the washroom given her hectic campaigning”, is heard sharing his views on why the BJP is in a strong position in this election.

“We have tried to analyze why people are saying that the next government in Bengal would be formed by the BJP. It has come to our notice that people who are voting for BJP are saying that the BJP is coming to power, but interestingly two third of the Left voters are also of the opinion that BJP is going to form the next government in Bengal. The Left feels that for now, the BJP should come to power and that Mamata Banerjee should lose this election,” Kishor is heard saying.

Kishor also admitted that the perception that BJP did not have workers on the ground in Bengal was false. He added that BJP had a mas