With reports of his relationship with West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee getting fragile, poll strategist Prashant Kishor met Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar — his former boss. While the meet over dinner set speculators wonder about a reunion after two years, the JD(U) boss played it down.
Dismissing the speculations, Kumar said that their ties are old and not much should be read into the meeting. “Hum dono ka sambandh koi aaj ka nahin hai. (Is my relationship with Prashant Kishor only from today?) There is no special meaning behind the meeting,” news agency ANI quoted the 70-year-old chief minister as saying.
Kishor, a political strategist, had worked closely with Kumar for the 2015 assembly polls, and was inducted into the JD(U) three years later by the CM who was also the party president back then. The data analyst, whose clientele comprises the who’s who of Indian politics, had a meteorical rise in the JD(U) and he got elevated to the post of national vice president within a few months, triggering speculations that in him the reclusive chief minister might have found his political successor.
However, Kishor’s adversarial stance on the CAA-NPR-NRC controversy riled the BJP, the alliance partner of the JD(U). The JD(U) had ended up voting in favour of citizenship amendment bill in Parliament, only to be followed by a course correction of sorts by Kumar who got a resolution passed in the state assembly against the proposed National Register for Citizens.
Nonetheless, the political greenhorn misread the signals when his wily boss tried to downplay Kishor and caused discomfiture to the BJP. At a press meet, Kumar said he was once asked by none other than Amit Shah to induct Kishor into the JD(U).
Kishor, once a poll strategist for Narendra Modi and subsequently for anti-BJP players like Arvind Kejriwal and Mamata Banerjee, flinched and accused his party boss of lying. He was sacked from the party less than 24 hours later. He was then inducted to the Trinamool Congress as a poll strategist, and was touted instrumental in the party’s monumental win in the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls.
However, the situation turned volatile later with reports of Kishor being in a tense situation with Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek.
In recent interviews, the i-PAC chief has spoken about his cordial ties with Nitish Kumar and had also named a few leaders he would like to reconnect with.
(With PTI inputs)
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