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Published 14:25 IST, July 11th 2019

BIG: Prashant Kishor to meet Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool MLAs, will chalk out strategy for 2021 assembly elections

Sources in the party have confirmed that Kishor will be speaking to the MLAs on the next strategy

Reported by: Navashree Nandini
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BIG: Prashant Kishor to meet Mamata Banerjee and Trinamool MLAs, will chalk out strategy for 2021 assembly elections
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After the major twist in the political scenario in Bihar and West Bengal election strategist Prashant Kishor joined Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool to strategise them for assembly elections. This came days after the Lok Sabha elections results were announced. In a development on the same issue, as per inputs, Kishor will hold a meeting with TMC MLAs alongside Mamata Banerjee. Sources in the party have confirmed that Kishor will be speaking to the MLAs on the next strategy to be chalked out ahead of the 2021 assembly elections.

While there will be no one-on-one interaction with the MLAs but he is going to share his next strategy looking forward. Besides West Bengal Chief Minister and party Supremo Mamata Banerjee, he will be holding a one-on-one meet with few of the senior leaders on July 11. Sources also said that stress will be given on social media, not to endorse any kind of corruption in the party and to engage youths in the state, as these three happpens to be Kishor's chief tools on which his campaigns are designed. 

WATCH: Nitish Kumar hints all is well between JD(U) and Prashant Kishor amid controversy over the latter working with Mamata Banerjee

Who is Prashant Kishor? 

Kishor whose team was an election strategist for YSRCP in Andhra Pradesh for the elections 2019, is known for his impressive strategy that leads parties to massive victories. In Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy's YSRCP won 151 seats in the state's 175 seats. In the past, Kishor was the chief strategist for Prime Minister Modi's election campaign in 2014, after which he started his own company called IPAC that engineered the poll campaign in Punjab for Captain Amarinder Singh. In 2015, Kishor worked for the JD(U) when the party was a part of Mahagathbandhan in Bihar and led the grand alliance to their landslide victory in the assembly elections in Bihar. He has also worked for the Congress party in the assembly polls of Uttar Pradesh, however, BJP won the election. Prashant Kishor first hit headlines after helping PM Modi win 2012 Gujarat assembly election and become chief minister for the third time beating anti-incumbency. 

Lok Sabha elections 2019: 

In the run-up to the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Kishor was appointed as vice president of Bihar's Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's party - the JD(U). By this time, the JD(U) was back to the folds of the NDA and it was rumoured that BJP chief Amit Shah was the reason behind Kishor's appointment in the JD(U). During the poll campaign, Kishor had also been in the controversy when the Lalu Yadav led RJD accused him of being the emissary for Nitish Kumar, requesting the RJD to let Kumar return to the Mahagathbandhan. He was also vocal in slamming TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu a number of times on Twitter. 

In West Bengal, the Mamata Banerjee led Trinamool faced a fierce fight from the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections 2019. The BJP party won 18 seats while the ruling Trinamool won 22 seats in the states. On the other hand, the JD(U) that is in alliance with the BJP, and won 16 seats in the Lok Sabha polls was not inducted in Prime Minister Modi's 2.0 cabinet. CM Nitish Kumar had said that he did not want any symbolic representation. In what is seen as tit-for-tat, Kumar did not include any BJP MP in his cabinet after the Lok Sabha polls. Senior RJD leader and close aide of Lalu Prasad Yadav, Raghuvansh Pratap Singh asked Kumar to join the mahagathbandhan to defeat the BJP in the state. Old friend-turned-foe of Kumar, HAM's chief Jitan Ram Manjhi also requested him to leave the NDA and join Mahagathbandhan for 'larger interest'.

Amidst these crucial political situations in the state of Bihar, Kishor joining the Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool came as a major twist as Kishor is officially a part of NDA alliance in the state and BJP forms the chief opposition to the ruling Trinamool in West Bengal. However, the JD(U) clarified that Kishor's team has nothing to do with JD(U) and that he is in the party, also that whatever his team does is his profession. 

READ: 'Even If 100 Prashant Kishors Come, They Can Do Nothing..", WB BJP's First Reaction On Mamata Roping In Celebrated Poll Strategist For Trinamool's Campaigning. Read Here

12:05 IST, July 11th 2019