Has popular political strategist Prashant Kishor decided to drop out of the campaign for YSR Congress party headed by Y S Jaganmohan Reddy?
It was evident from his statement at Hyderabad at an interaction in Indian School of Business on Sunday, where he said he would not be involved in the 2019 elections.
He said he would come out of the Indian Political Action Committee which he had founded and would be working in villages in states like Gujarat and Bihar.
He said he would not be working with any other politician.
“As agreed earlier, my team would be working for the YSR Congress party, but I would not be part of the campaign,” he said.
Prashant’s team also clarified recently that it was not working with any political party or leader other than YSR Congress party in Andhra Pradesh.
“If and when we do choose to work with someone, we would formally share the same. Until then, it is our humble request to all to lay the speculation to rest,” the I-PAC said in the tweet.
There was a suspicion that he was doing backroom work for Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he launched an online platform to hunt for a leader for 2019 parliament elections.
The platform, called the National Agenda Forum, is a part-recruiting tool where people can also register to help the leader win next year's general election.
Now with Prashant making it clear that he won’t be part of 2019 poll campaign, it led to the talk that he is dumping Jaganmohan Reddy in the middle the battle.
Though IPAC will be working with Jagan, it all comprises young team members who were hitherto working under the directions of Prashant, who used to do field visits regularly.
It remains to be seen what role the IPAC would be playing from now on in the absence of Prashant.