What Is Prashant Kishor Up To?
By A Special Correspondent
First publised on 2021-10-01 15:28:17
About the Author
Professional overreach and conflict of interest are becoming evident in the recent actions of political strategist and tactician Prashant Kishor and his firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). Kishor was reportedly in talks with the Congress to assume a bigger role by joining the party just a couple of months back. Yet, he and I-PAC are also reportedly snaring leaders from the Congress. At least one such leader, former Goa CM and Congress leader Luizonho Faleiro, who recently switched to the Trinamool Congress (TMC), has admitted that it was Kishor who approached him to join TMC and that he had never met or spoken to either Mamata Banerjee or her nephew Abhishek Banerjee before joining the party.
Is this the reason why the Congress has kept his entry on hold after forming a committee and getting the views of a large number of party leaders on the admission and role of Kishor if he was admitted? Any political strategist who helps parties plan and execute their poll campaigns has to be neutral as his portfolio of clients can be allies in some states while they might be on the opposite sides in others. There is nothing wrong in a political strategist having a political leaning. Prashant Kishor's anti-BJP stand is universally known. In fact, his vehement personal opposition to the BJP has helped him win clients among the opposition parties, mainly regional ones. Although he has also worked for the Congress (Punjab) earlier, if he had joined it, others parties opposed to the both the Congress and the BJP might have stopped hiring him.
But if Prashant Kishor is snaring Congress leaders for the TMC, then the Congress, despite the horrible state that it is in, will think many times before bringing him on board. Hence, if he has political aspirations, he will have to remain neutral before joining a political party. He will also have to remain neutral if he has hopes of being the catalyst of opposition unity. Above all, if he does not have political aspirations, he will have to remain neutral to keep his business going. If he plays broker for politicians out to change parties, the trust factor will diminish and so will his client base.
