West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and poll strategist Prashant Kishor.West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee Thursday met with poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who is credited for the recent success of Jaganmohan Reddy’s victory in Andhra Pradesh, apart from helping out Nitish Kumar and even Narendra Modi earlier.
Kishor came along with TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee in Nabanna (state secretariat) in the afternoon and held a meeting with Mamata Banerjee for one hour and forty minutes.
In this Lok Sabha elections, for the first time, BJP made major gains in Bengal as it increased its tally from two by bagging 18 out of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in the state. The TMC’s tally came down to 22 from the 34 seats it had won in 2014. This was a major setback from TMC who has won constantly since 2009 Lok Sabha polls. West Bengal is scheduled to go for assembly polls in 2021.
According to Trinamool Congress sources, Mamata and Kishor deliberated over the causes of Trinamool Congress’ poll set back in the Lok Sabha. Kishor explained his readings seat by seat for West Bengal.
“He is a poll expert and naturally our supreme leader listened to his opinion about the causes and trends in this Lok Sabha polls. They also deliberated over a road map prescribed by Mamata Banerjee for the future to stop BJP from advancing in Bengal,” said a senior Trinamool Congress leader on the condition of anonymity.
Kishor is credited with YSR Congress’ win in Andhra Pradesh. YSR Congress won all 25 Lok Sabha seats and over 150 out of 175 seats in the assembly. Prashant was appointed as special advisor to Jagan in May 2017 and together they devised the strategy to wrest AP from Telugu Desam Party and N Chandrababu Naidu.
The poll strategist, who is credited with having formulated several of the signature elements of Narendra Modi’s innovative election campaign in 2014, joined the JD(U) in September 2018 and was made its national vice president a month later. He joined Nitish Kumar and strategised the election campaign for his party during the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections.
