oppn parties Prashant Kishore Has A New Client In KCR

News Snippets

  • Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh has claimed that Cockroach Janta Party (CJP) co-convenor Ashutosh Ranka refused to meet Congress leaders during his recent Assam visit. He alleged that the group was told to stay away because its outreach was "an Aam Aadmi Party initiative"
  • Indian Railways is undertaking a major expansion of the Guwahati rail network, including new lines, the second Saraighat Bridge, station redevelopment and a Mega Coaching Complex. The projects are intended to improve connectivity, passenger facilities and train operations across the Northeast
  • 150 people were arrested in Delhi as the CJP protest over the resignation of CEC Gynaesh Kumar entered the second day
  • The Centre ordered all AGMUT cadre segments to report within 48 hours any FIR, arrest, adverse court order or investigative action involving IAS, IPS, DANICS and DANIPS officers. The move follows concerns over delays in reporting investigations by agencies including the CBI, ED and anti-corruption bodies
  • India brought back alleged international narco-trafficking kingpin Navpreet Singh from Türkiye, where he had allegedly obtained citizenship under the false identity Navab Virk. Home Minister Amit Shah said Singh was accused of running heroin and methamphetamine trafficking routes from Afghanistan into India
  • Jack Dorsey’s decentralised messaging application Bitchat disappeared from Apple's and Google's app stores in India after Apple said the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology had ordered its removal under Section 69A of the IT Act. The app's website was also inaccessible through several Indian internet providers
  • The RBI reiterated its cautious stance on private cryptocurrencies, while backing the underlying technologies such as distributed ledgers and tokenisation. Governor Sanjay Malhotra said central-bank digital currencies could offer an alternative for improving cross-border payments
  • Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said India must continue building economic resilience amid global uncertainty, highlighting strategic-resource security, diversified supply chains, skills and domestic capabilities in critical minerals, rare earths, semiconductors and small modular reactors. She was speaking at the Kautilya Economic Conclave in New Delhi
  • RBI Governor Sanjay Malhotra warned that a slowdown in the global AI investment cycle could trigger sharp repricing of financial assets, while saying any correction in elevated AI valuations in advanced economies could potentially redirect capital towards India. He also identified cyber risk as a major financial-stability concern arising from increasingly sophisticated AI
  • India lost 4-0 to Brazil in the historic international friendly at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium, with Estevao, Pedro and Samuel Lino, who scored twice, finding the net. The match was Brazil’s first senior men’s international on Indian soil
  • Seventeen-year-old Kumkum Mohod won India’s first women’s individual recurve gold at the Asian Games, beating South Korea’s Oh Yejin in a shoot-off. The victory also secured an Olympic quota place for India for the 2028 Los Angeles Games
  • Pranavi Urs became the first Indian woman to win an individual Asian Games golf gold, finishing one stroke ahead of China’s Yin Ruoning at 15-under 265. India also took silver in the women’s team event
  • Wrestler Aman Sehrawat won the men’s 57kg freestyle gold, defeating reigning world champion Han Chong Song of North Korea 11-7 after recovering from a 7-6 deficit late in the bout
  • India’s men’s hockey team retained the Asian Games gold, defeating Malaysia 5-1 in the final. The victory also secured India a place in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
  • India retained the Asian Games men’s T20 cricket title, beating Pakistan by 19 runs in the final. Abhishek Sharma’s 61 off 28 balls and Tilak Varma’s unbeaten 51 off 22 helped India post 211/6 before Pakistan finished on 192/6
Asian Games: October 3 gold medallists: Kumkum Mohod (Archery), Pranavi Urs (Golf), Aman Sehrawat (Wrestling), India men’s cricket team (Cricket), and India men’s hockey team (Hockey) /////// India finishes its campaign in 4th position in the Asian Games medal table: 21 gold, 27 silver, 37 bronze; 85 medals.
oppn parties
Prashant Kishore Has A New Client In KCR

By Yogendra
First publised on 2022-02-28 10:04:31

About the Author

Sunil Garodia Yogendra is freelance writer

The newest client for Prashant Kishor and IPAC is the Telengana Rashtra Samiti (TRS). The buzz in political circles was partially confirmed when Kishor, accompanied by actor Prakash Raj, toured Gajwel, the constituency of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (KCR). Later, he also met KCR at the his farmhouse at Erravelli village in Siddipet district on Sunday. Kishor's meetings and the way he is reported to have interacted with people and the inquiries he made confirm that the IPAC team will soon take over the image building exercise and get the TRS ready for the state elections in end-2023. This comes soon after the civic elections in West Bengal where IPAC was accused of (mis)handling the social media accounts of a senior TMC leader (a charge vehemently denied by the organization) and of meddling in candidate selection which led to a lot of protests and a final intervention by chief minister Mamata Banerjee. There were also reports of a tiff between Kishor and Banerjee.

While IPAC has an excellent track record of handling the campaign of political parties and leading them to win elections, Kishor's track record in cementing these relationships is patchy. Often, he falls out with party leaders. Nitish Kumar also removed him from the JD(U) after a brief spell as vice-president, although a recent meeting (called a courtesy call by both Kumar and Kishor) fuelled speculation about the both coming back together again. Senior party leaders in all parties often view Kishor as meddlesome and someone who tries to reduce their importance in the party. IPAC has faced resistance on this count in many states. Hence, TRS and KCR will have to be on guard for this kind of resentment within the party as KCR runs a tight ship and dissent due to involving IPAC might lead to serious consequences. It is also being speculated that the KCR probably changed his stance from being neutral (even supporting the Centre on several issues) to being a fierce critic of Modi and the NDA government on Kishor's prompting.