We have often heard of political leaders defecting from one party to another to suit their political interests at the time of elections or before that. But even political strategists working for one party are now jumping the fence into the rival parties.
According to reports, a key member of Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), which has been working political strategies for YSR Congress party led by chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy for the upcoming assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, has recently defected to the Telugu Desam Party camp led by N Chandrababu Naidu.
Shantanu Singh, who was till recently a core member of the I-PAC team in Andhra Pradesh has reportedly quit the organisation and switched over to ShowTime Consulting (STC), run by Robbin Sharma, which has been hired by the TDP for working out poll strategies for the elections to the Andhra assembly and Lok Sabha in 2024.
Singh, an IIT-Kanpur alumnus, was a close associate of Rishi Raj Singh and was looking after political intelligence wing of the I-PAC taking care of YSRC campaign work.
He worked for YSRC in 2019 elections as well, but had taken a break from I-PAC to do a Master of Public Administration at Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy.
After his return from Singapore, he rejoined I-PAC and, until two months ago, was busy handling YSRC work. But for some strange reason, he resigned from the I-PAC and joined Robin Sharma’s team in a “director” level position.
Since he is aware of in and out of the YSRC campaign plan, the TDP has hired him to get the benefit, sources said.