Prashant Kishor sculpts strategies to win UP and Punjab for Congress
July 24 :Prashant Kishor, the key strategist of Indian Political Action Committee, or I-PAC, kick started launch of Congress election campaigns in UP, six months in advance.
The Congress is not known to launch its campaigns as early as six months in advance. Its election strategies usually mean very little other than ticket distribution and Rahul Gandhi’s rallies. Sheila Dikshit’s three-day bus tour of Uttar Pradesh and marking the launch of the Congress campaign in the state and declaring a chief ministerial candidate are unusual for the party. Can Prashant Kishor Change The Way The Congress Party Functions?, reported by The Huffington Post.
It’s taken Kishor time to convince a slow and indecisive Congress party to do things his way, but now that the party has given in, Kishor may well be changing how the Congress functions.
Convincing Priyanka Gandhi that this is the right time for her to enter active politics also goes to Kishor’s credit. Senior Congress leaders and even Congress president Sonia Gandhi were said to be wary if this was the right time for Priyanka to make her entry.
The high command relented and agreed to make Ghulam Nabi Azad the general secretary for UP, Raj Babbar the state president and announce Sheila Dikshit as the CM candidate. By Kishor’s standards, these decisions took too long in the coming, but six months is still enough time.
Kishor did hit a wall in Punjab, when the announcement of Kamal Nath as AICC general secretary for the state backfired due to Nath’s association with the 1984 anti-Sikh violence. The replacement, Asha Kumari, came with its own share of controversy. The public spats with Captain Amarinder Singh may not have helped either. Yet, the campaign in Punjab is being conducted by Kishor’s team, all centred around Amarinder Singh, challenging the Aam Aadmi Party to announce their CM candidate.
