Published 21:01 IST, March 1st 2021
Prashant Kishor's new role draws BJP's ridicule; SAD slams Congress' 'deceitful tricks'
Political strategist Prashant Kishor's appointment as the Principal Advisor to Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Monday drew a sharp response from BJP and SAD.
Political strategist Prashant Kishor's appointment as the Principal Advisor to Punjab CM Amarinder Singh on Monday drew a sharp response from BJP as well as SAD. Kishor was credited for Congress winning 77 out of 117 seats in the 2017 Punjab Assembly election. As per sources, he will plan Congress' election campaign for the Punjab Assembly election due next year. In a dig at the political strategist, BJP West Bengal president Dilip Ghosh contended that the former was going to Punjab as he saw bleak prospects for TMC in the state Assembly polls.
On the other hand, SAD general secretary Bikram Majethia accused Amarinder Singh of insulting Punjabis. According to him, the people of the state will not fall for the Congress party's "deceitful tricks". Maintaining that the electorate wants to hold the Congress government accountable for failing to fulfill its promises, he urged Kishor to conduct his "fake" interactions like 'Chai par Charcha' and 'Coffee with Captain' elsewhere. At present, Kishor is shaping TMC and DMK's campaign for the West Bengal Assembly polls and Tamil Nadu Assembly polls respectively.
Congress' Punjab unit: a divided house?
After gaining acclaim owing to his crucial role in BJP winning a majority on its own in the 2014 General election, Kishor's Indian Political Action Committee also ran successful campaigns for AAP (2015) and Mahagatbandhan (2015). However, he failed to propel the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance to victory in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls. Incidentally, Kishor joining hands with Congress for the 2022 state Assembly polls comes months after he turned down Singh's offer in this regard. In June 2020, both Punjab Congress president Sunil Jakhar and Congress' state affairs in-charge Asha Kumari reportedly made it clear that the political strategist was not needed for the next Assembly election.
However, the Punjab CM revealed that Congress president Sonia Gandhi had left the decision to him. Maintaining that he had taken the party's legislators into confidence, Capt. Amarinder Singh divulged that 55 Congress MLAs were in favour of bringing back Kishor to handle the campaign. While he will be paid only Rs.1 as remuneration, he has been accorded the rank of a Cabinet Minister. Besides this, he is entitled to avail of 6 staff members, a fully furnished government residence for free, a camp office, phone, internet and travel expenses and medical facilities.
Updated 21:01 IST, March 1st 2021