New Delhi: Hours after meeting with Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar on Monday, poll strategist Prashant Kishor ruled out speculations about him joining any opposition front to tackle BJP in the 2024 general elections. Speaking to a leading news channel, Kishor clarified the rumours and said that he doesn’t believe a “Third or Fourth Front” could emerge as a successful challenge to the “current dispensation”. He went on to say that the ‘tried and tested’ Third Front model is archaic.
“I don’t believe a Third or Fourth Front could emerge as a successful challenge to the current dispensation,” Prashant Kishor told NDTV. He said that the speculated model is not suited to the current political dynamic.
Prashant Kishor has already held two one-on-one meetings with NCP chief Sharad Pawar and will host another meeting of leaders from several parties and eminent personalities on Tuesday. This fuelled speculation that a Third Front could be in the works to take on the BJP. However, Kishor has cleared the air.
Speaking to NDTV, Prashant Kishor said his meetings with Sharad Pawar were of hardcore political discussions to explore ‘state to state’ possibilities of what could work in the fight against the BJP. Kishor played an instrumental role in strategising the Trinamool Congress’ victory in the recent West Bengal assembly election.
He said that this sent a message to opposition parties that “they too can stand up to the BJP and give them a contest”, NDTV quoted him from the interview.
Kishor, who was part of the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, has later handled the campaign of several opposition parties like the TMC, AAP and the DMK. However, the poll strategist recently told NDTV’s Srinivasan Jain that he was going to “quit this space”. He also criticised the Congress approach saying that the party “must realise that it has a problem and then do something about it”.
Opposition Leaders to Converge at Sharad Pawar’s Residence Today
Veteran politician Sharad Pawar has called for a meeting of leaders from several parties and eminent personalities at 4 PM today, after holding discussions with poll strategist Prashant Kishor. Pawar has, however, denied speculations of hosting a Third Front meeting.
Besides politicians, eminent people from various fields such as senior advocate KTS Tulsi, former chief election commissioner SY Qureshi, former ambassador KC Singh, lyricist Javed Akhtar, film-maker Pritish Nandy, advocate Colin Gonsalves, filmmaker Pritish Nandi and media personalities Karan Thapar and Ashutosh will attend Tuesday’s meeting.