As the political landscape in West Bengal heats up, the ruling party TMC seems to have had a faux pas. A day after the massive roadshow of Home Minister Amit Shah, TMC’s strategist Prashant Kishor took to Twitter to ‘challenge’ that despite the ‘hype amplified by supportive media’, BJP in Bengal will ‘struggle to cross double digits’ in Bengal.
For all the hype AMPLIFIED by a section of supportive media, in reality BJP will struggle to CROSS DOUBLE DIGITS in #WestBengal
— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) December 21, 2020
PS: Please save this tweet and if BJP does any better I must quit this space!
Essentially, Kishor inadvertently ended up admitting that the BJP will end up with at least 99 seats (highest double digit figure).
The faux pas wasn’t lost on netizens who did not miss the opportunity. BJP Bengal Observer Kailash Vijayvargiya took a dig on Kishor and said how after the BJP forms the government in Bengal, the country will have to lose one of its political strategist.
भाजपा की बंगाल में जो सुनामी चल रही हैं, सरकार बनने के बाद इस देश को एक चुनाव रणनीतिकार खोना पड़ेगा।
— Kailash Vijayvargiya (@KailashOnline) December 21, 2020
Bengal assembly has 294 seats and majority mark is 148. In 2016 assembly elections, TMC had won 211 seats while Congress got 44 seats. The BJP in Bengal had won 3 seats.
Psephologist Yashwant Deshmukh also wondered whether Bengal is heading for hung assembly with the kind of predictions Kishor is making.
Oh. Wow. So as per him reaching up to 99 seats is a distinct possibility for BJP ! That's very very interesting indeed.
— Yashwant Deshmukh 🇮🇳 (@YRDeshmukh) December 21, 2020
Going by his equation, even if Congress and Left disintegrate further by 50% of whatsoever they are left with, is Didi getting prepared for hung assembly?? https://t.co/9nQJ4kzjUm
Some were just brutal.The way things are going, BJP may make it to three digits even before the elections are held. -_-
— Abhishek Mukherjee (@ovshake42) December 21, 2020
Work harder.
Sorry PK, but nobody will hold you to your words if you are wrong.
— Abhishek (@AbhishBanerj) December 21, 2020
You are not even that important. https://t.co/EQaQQJ72xj
— Ankur Singh (@iAnkurSingh) December 21, 2020
This prediction from TMC is a bit rich considering the fact that in 2019 general elections, TMC went down from 34 MPs in 2014 to 22 MPs and BJP went from 2 MPs in 2014 to 18. In fact, BJP’s vote share had also gone up by over 22% to 40.64% while TMC’s vote share had only gone up 3.48% to 43.69%.
Netizens also pointed out how Kishor put a bad bet this time.
Galat ghode pe paise laga diye bhai tumne is bar 🙂
— Vikas Pandey (@MODIfiedVikas) December 21, 2020
Speaking of bad bets, Kishor had earlier worked as poll strategist for Rahul Gandhi and Congress ahead of 2017 UP Assembly Elections. In the 403 member assembly, the SP-Congress alliance was reduced to 54 seats while the BJP got a sensational 325 seats.