Prashant Kishor’s tryst with political parties over the years

New Delhi: Political strategist Prashant Kishor has turned down Congress’s offer to join the party’s newly formed Empowered Action Group for 2024 polls. A section of Congress leaders are believed to have opposed Kishor’s induction into the party due to his links with political rivals. Here is a look at the parties he has earlier worked with.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)

Kishor was part of the BJP’s national election campaign in 2014 when it returned to power with a majority on its own. He association with Prime Minister Narendra Modi began in 2010 as an advisor to the then Gujarat chief minister on healthcare. He organised campaigns related to healthcare and later wrote Modi’s speeches. Ahead of the 2014 national elections, Kishor created campaigns such as Chai Pe for Modi. Kishor employed over 1,200 members to run Modi’s campaign across 13 states.

Janata Dal (United) or JD (U)

Kishor’s consultancy firm I-PAC worked with Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar before he was voted to power for the third time in 2010. Its teams visited villages across Bihar to plan the election campaign. I-PAC coined slogans for the campaign including ‘Phir ek baar, Nitish Kumar’ and ‘Nitish ke nishchay, vikas ki guarantee’. Kumar later offered Kishor a position as his advisor for planning and programme implementation after he joined the party in 2018. Kishor fell out with JD(U) after Kumar supported the Centre’s Citizenship Amendment Act and left the party.

Congress

Kishor worked for Captain Amarinder Singh before he became the chief minister of Punjab after Congress’s victory in the 2017 Punjab elections. He created strategies and devised “Coffee with Captain” and “Punjab da Captain” campaigns for Singh.

YSR Congress

Ahead of the 2019 Andhra Pradesh elections, Kishor designed campaigns for YSR Congress’s Y S Jaganmohan Reddy including a 3,648-km-long “praja sankalpa yatra”. I-PAC helped YSRCP at the polling booth level. It organised 35 campaigns over two years before the assembly elections. Reddy sent out personal letters to over 60,000 village-level influencers seeking suggestions to develop the state. The party also managed to reach out to over 10 million households before the election.

Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)

Kishor joined the Arvind Kejriwal campaign ahead of the 2020 Delhi assembly elections. AAP swept back to power winning 62 out of 70 seats.

Trinamool Congress (TMC) and DMK

During the 2021 Assembly elections, his latest stints with TMC’s Mamata Banerjee and DMK’s MK Stalin were meritorious in Prashant Kishor’s career. I-PAC expanded its arm into West Bengal during the Assembly election and helped strategise for TMC effectively. Kishor was all over the place during Mamata’s election campaign. He strategised some key campaigns that are people-centric such as ‘Duare Sarkar’ and ‘Didi Ke Bolo’. He devised the insider-versus-outsider narrative opposing BJP’s bid to talk about Bengal’s cultural icons.

In Tamil Nadu, Kishor proved successful in leading DMK’s MK Stalin to win the Assembly election and become the chief minister. Kishor re-branded Stalin in line with the iconic figure and former CM M Karunanidhi in the political landscape of the state. His political advocacy group assisted DMK to conduct outreach programmes during the Covid-19 induced lockdown.