Amit Shah vs Prashant Kishor: How the kid meekly surrenders against ‘real’ Chanakya of Indian politics

The BJP stormed to power at the Centre in 2014. The wide popularity of PM Modi was the sole reason behind the party’s sweeping victory. However, wannabe political analysts had then projected Prashant Kishor as the master political strategist as the man behind BJP’s huge victory. Kishor, who was obviously in the illusion that he had powered the BJP to the landmark victory, got associated with several states and political outfits since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. The mainstream media and wannabe political analysts have been constantly trying to project him as an invincible political strategist.

An accurate analysis would reveal how Prashant Kishor is rendered ineffective when faced with the BJP President, Amit Shah. 

Recently, Kishor also had a major role to play even in the ongoing political twist that has unfolded in Maharashtra. As per reports, it was Prashant Kishor who was tasked with grooming the Thackeray scion, Aaditya in the state of Maharashtra. Later on, a Republic report claimed that Prashant Kishor was the brainchild behind an alliance between the NCP, Shiv Sena and the Congress that could never really materialise. Today, the Uddhav Thackeray led party has emerged as the biggest loser in the ongoing political battle in the state of Maharashtra. It won’t be wrong to say that it was Prashant Kishor who pushed the Sena towards demanding the 50:50 formula and attempts to forge an alliance with the NCP and the Congress. Today, Prashant Kishor has come under fire for his miscalculations that have entailed dire consequences for Sena. While the Shiv Sena remained keen on pushing for the CM post, it has been caught napping even as Ajit Pawar engineered a split within the NCP and aligned with the BJP.

In fact, if we take a look at Kishor’s career, it would come to light that he has faced defeat every time he tried to take on the Amit Shah-led BJP. Take the 2017 UP Assembly polls for example. Prashant Kishor was the political strategist for SP-Congress alliance. However, the results strongly dismantled the myth of Kishor’s invincibility. The SP-Congress alliance was absolutely decimated and the BJP registered a thumping victory. This single event had greatly reduced the reputation of Prashant Kishor as a master political strategist.

Prashant Kishor was also the one who led Nitish Kumar’s Chief Ministerial campaign in 2015. The JD (U) had aligned with the RJD on the advice of Kishor and the alliance won the 2015 Bihar polls, something that was seen as a huge challenge for the BJP. However, the BJP was able to make a comeback in the state less than two years later, when the JD (U)-RJD coalition fell apart and Nitish Kumar came back into the NDA fold owing to former Finance Minister, late Arun Jaitley’s efforts. Even then, Prashant Kishor’s political strategy against the BJP had turned out to be an abject failure.

Therefore, ever since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, there have been at least three instances when Kishor’s political strategy to counter the BJP failed in a miserable manner. Kishor’s exploits have been, by far limited to non-BJP, regional satraps. For example, he was able to lead YSCRP to a massive victory in the state of Andhra Pradesh, even as Jaggan Reddy stormed to power with a huge mandate. The rival in Andhra Pradesh was not the BJP or a BJP ally but the Chandrababu Naidu led TDP. Similarly, Kishor was able to chalk out a political strategy for the Congress in Punjab Assembly polls 2017 in which the grand old party emerged victoriously. However, even there it was Captain Amarinder Singh who deserves greater credit for the victory. The main political rival was again a regional player, the Akali Dal and not the BJP. The Akali Dal government was already facing anti-incumbency in the state and that helped the Congress campaign in Punjab. In these states, he never really faced Amit Shah as the political strategist on his opponent’s side.

Prashant Kishor’s political strategies have failed to combat BJP’s political strategist, Amit Shah. After the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kishor was labelled as the Chanakya of Indian politics by certain political analysts. Kishor seems to have been taken in by this belief and went on to take on Amit Shah in other political battlefields within India. But he has failed every single time. His strategy seems to work only against non-BJP, regional players. Every time, he is faced with the BJP, it seems as if all he can do and surrender before Amit Shah who has emerged as the undisputed master political strategist of Indian politics.