Cong deal off, Prashant Kishor needs BJP or AAP to reach national goals

Despite trying hard, the Congress and Prashant Kishor couldn’t come to terms with each other to work together. Thus, the question that inevitably comes to mind is: why can’t the latter be re-employed by his first choice, the BJP?

Prashant is credited (though maybe alongside other factors) to have been the man behind the successful transformation of Narendra Modi from Gujarat Chief Minister to the country’s Prime Minister.

His other successes have benefitted quite a few regional satraps. These have also been rather less remarkable than the 2014 Lok Sabha polls that put Modi firmly in the saddle.

Yet, there are no signs of Prashant’s ghar wapsi to the BJP. This becomes all the more curious since he not only parted ways with the BJP but also lately reached out to its main opponent for a possible deal to oust the saffron party in 2024.

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Though some say he can’t be trusted by BJP’s opponents because of his past association with the ruling party, the very fact that the Congress has tried to take him on board speaks of his impeccable professional credentials.

Seeking a major political role

But Prashant does not want to remain a mere consultant for any of the parties or their leaders anymore. What he is seeking is a substantial political role as a leader. He had got quite near to power by becoming an adviser to Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with a Cabinet rank and its privileges. Later, he came closer to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. But his expectations appear to be higher and he has not had much luck with the Congress.

Thus, the only national party left worth matching his ambition can only be the BJP. He does not appear to have totally or irretrievably fallen out with his old employer. At best he has distanced himself from the saffron party and he once revealed in a TV interview that he still meets Modi whenever he is called for by the Prime Minister.

Now the question is whether the BJP needs him or not? Though at the moment Prashant Kishor may not exactly be wanted in the BJP since the party has been winning polls on its own, it is difficult to hazard a guess.

Prashant’s ties with BJP

Yet, the genesis of Prashant’s relationship with the BJP becomes important. More so when he has declined what was on offer from the Congress.

Prashant started advising Modi for getting back to his third term as the Gujarat Chief Minister in 2012. Back from the US, Kishor had joined Modi’s strategy team only after another US-based transnational company, APCO Worldwide, was hired by Modi for his Vibrant Gujarat campaign which sought investments both from home and abroad.

The campaign was thought to be highly successful and helped in shaping what eventually came to be known as Modi’s Gujarat Model. When Modi went into general elections in 2014, it was still believed that APCO was helping him in the election campaign. But the company strongly denied this a year prior to the polls. The company said it played no role in Modi’s image-building.  It maintained that its campaign was never political and that it was confined to Vibrant Gujarat alone, for which it was hired by the Gujarat Government rather than Modi or the BJP.

Thus, Prashant came in at a time when the Gujarat Model was already in place with Modi being projected its main prime-mover and architect. In this sense, Prashant only took over from APCO whose entry into India may have technically been confined to Gujarat, as claimed by the state government, but the company caught the imagination of political players in Delhi.

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Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal founded the Aam Aadmi Party during that time. The method he opted to ride to power in Delhi was also based on volunteer-driven surveys and contact plans, besides data analysis as is done by most US image-makers, PR firms and lobbyists.

Modi kept an eye on Kejriwal

Significantly, in a recent interview with a Hindi news channel, former journalist-turned-central minister Arun Shourie revealed that way back in 2013 Modi was aware of Kejriwal’s moves. Talking about his latest book The Commissioner of Lost Causes, Shourie told his interviewer, “Not many people in 2013 took Kejriwal or his party seriously but Modi did. I know because five or six of us used to meet informally at Ahmedabad to give and discuss ideas with Modi. He once asked us to find out what Kejriwal was doing. Our friend Rajesh Jain, an IT wizard, was sent to Delhi to do that. Jain made a presentation showing how AAP volunteers were going door-to-door (to spread the word about AAP).”

Both the BJP and AAP have come a long way since 2013, leaving the Congress far behind. And this is why the Congress higher ups could have warmed up to meeting Prashant. But nothing came out of the repeated rendezvous between the two. Yet, in the process, both may have come to know each other better than before.

Now the two can well choose to go their own way. This leaves the option for Prashant as well as the BJP to enter into a new partnership. If not now then at some later stage this can be a possibility. It may turn out to be more so in case the Congress picks up steam before the 2024 polls.

With his increasing hold over regional parties ever since he left the BJP Prashant’s services can turn out to be quite sought after in such a case.

AAP may look to Prashant

As things stand now, the AAP may try to tilt the balance in 2024 and look to Prashant for a roadmap to make its presence felt, not only in the next general elections but also in polls in a host of states before that. These include Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Prashant has already helped AAP through its successful run for its second term in Delhi.

So, the coming together of AAP and Prashant Kishor is not as remote a possibility as some think. The fact is that AAP has so far entered states where Congress is or has been in a strong position. This has worked for AAP in Delhi and Punjab.  It has benefitted the BJP in states like Uttarakhand and Goa where AAP could turn the contest triangular.

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