The outcome of Delhi assembly elections wherein Aam Admi Party led by Arvind Kejriwal has retained power with a huge mandate has once again brought into focus the role of popular political strategist Prashant Kishor.
A few months before the Delhi elections, Kejriwal hired Prashant, much to the annoyance of the Bharatiya Janata Party and its political ally Janata Dal (United) in Bihar.
For working out winning strategies for AAP and differing with the BJP bosses, Prashant had to be sacked from JD (U).
Now, Prashant would be working for Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamul Congress in West Bengal and M K Stalin’s Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in Tamil Nadu in the coming assembly elections in their respective states.
But Prashant is learnt to have a bigger game plan. Analysts say, after coming out of the JD (U), he is working out a nation-wide strategy to pull down the BJP from the Centre in 2024 general elections with the help of all regional parties.
So, it is not Telangana Rashtra Samithi president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who is going to play a national role in building up anti-BJP and anti-Congress federal front, but it will be Prashant Kishor who is going to do that.
Since he has already played a major role in bringing various parties to power in the states, he is planning to consolidate these wins and project a national alternative.
Sources said Prashant’s game plan is to project Arvind Kejriwal as a potential alternative to Narendra Modi in the next general elections, as he has now become a nationwide figure for the common man.
For that, he wants to mobilise the support of all regional parties.
As part of the strategy, Prashant is learnt to have met YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy last week and held discussions on the national political scenario.
He is understood to have asked Jagan to maintain a neutral stand for the time being, while expressing opposition to issues like CAA and NRC so as to protect the secular image of the party.
Since Prashant had played a crucial role in the victory of YSRC in the last assembly elections in AP, Jagan would definitely give a lot of weight to his words.
However, the YSRC chief would keep in mind his state’s interests, rather than blindly following Prashant’s advice, sources said.