As the state of West Bengal decides to lock the fortunes of political leaders on 44 assembly seats during the fourth phase of the elections currently underway, Trinamool Congress (TMC) and its political strategist, Prashant Kishor has started accepting the impending defeat by blaming Mamata Banerjee and her ilk for indulging in ‘blatant’ Muslim appeasement politics over the years. The damning statements made allegedly by Kishor were released after his chat with Lutyens and the liberal media on audio-hosting app Clubhouse were leaked, as the group was kept open.
“The major problem that we have to accept is that since 20 years there has been an effort to appease the minority. If you pick out Bengal, the entire politics can be summarised in a sentence, ‘whomever the Muslims vote for, that party will form the government’. The entire ecosystem of Left, Congress and Didi has evolved to target the Muslim vote bank.” said Kishor in his monologue.
https://twitter.com/thakkar_sameet/status/1380727495490629633
Explaining his point further, Kishor allegedly remarked that BJP had understood Mamata’s appeasement politics and had worked its way around by mobilising the Hindu voters who seem surprised that someone is finally asking for them.
“For the first time, Hindus are thinking that someone is asking about them. There is some element BJP is exploiting and that element is coming from the blatant misuse of minority politics by these parties. You and I cannot refuse to believe this reality (sic.),” added Kishor.
Modi is hugely popular in Bengal and there is no doubt about it. There is a cult around him across the country.
There is anti-incumbency against TMC, polarisation is a reality, SC votes is a factor plus BJP’s election machinery, says Mamata Banerjee’s strategist in an open chat. pic.twitter.com/Vrl8vl231b
— Amit Malviya (मोदी का परिवार) (@amitmalviya) April 10, 2021
BJP leader and national in-charge of BJP’s Information & Technology department, Amit Malviya milked the leaked audios to full effect by releasing another section where Kishor is seemingly singing high-praise of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity.
Stating there is no anti-incumbency against PM Modi, Kishor is allegedly heard saying, “There is a cult of Modi which has been created across India, the degree could vary. The Hindi-speaking population is Modi’s core base. The anti-incumbency (in West Bengal) is against the state government. And yes, Modi is popular here, very popular.”
The so-called ‘master poll strategist’ of the Indian political landscape also talked about one of the internal surveys where PM Modi’s popularity was equal to that of Mamata.
“In our surveys, we have found that Modi and Mamata are equally popular. Modi is very popular. Bengal has not had a taste of the BJP — That is a factor. What people have not seen in 30-35 years, people feel that BJP could do something that they never saw. People want to test (the BJP). There are three factors (in favour of BJP) — polarisation, anti-incumbency and SC votes,” the strategist is reportedly heard saying.
In a public chat on Club House, Mamata Banerjee’s election strategist concedes that even in TMC’s internal surveys, BJP is winning.
The vote is for Modi, polarisation is a reality, the SCs (27% of WB’s population), Matuas are all voting for the BJP!
BJP has cadre on ground. pic.twitter.com/3ToYuvWfRm
— Amit Malviya (मोदी का परिवार) (@amitmalviya) April 10, 2021
While Prashant Kishor was busy spilling the beans, oblivious that the room was public and being recorded, other stalwarts of the Lutyen’s media seemed more eager in knowing the ‘Toilet schedule’ of CM Mamata Banerjee.
Sakshi Joshi, an independent journalist, claiming to cover the West Bengal assembly elections, according to her Twitter bio, asked the rather quizzical question to Kishor, who had to shrug off the limitless awkwardness of the question by laughing it off.
“I was wondering as a woman. Mamata Banerjee arrives in a helicopter, speaks on the stage for an hour, returns to her helicopter and then lands at a different venue. Even there she speaks for an hour on the stage. When is she going to the washroom? When is she going for herself? This is my question.” said the ‘journalist’.
This isn’t the first time that Kishor has hinted at the results where BJP is sweeping the eastern state. In fact, Kishor has already anticipated the outcome and packed his bags for another assignment in Punjab.
Reported by TFI, Kishor has been appointed principal adviser in the rank and status of a cabinet minister to CM Captain Amarinder Singh. According to media reports, Kishor will be entitled to a fully-furnished government residence and camp office, executive class travel, official vehicle, medical facilities and secretarial staff during his tenure with the Punjab Congress.
More recently, leaked images showing a survey of the 30 seats which went to the polls in phase two of the elections were reportedly leaked through IPAC, (Indian Political Action Committee) — the poll agency run by Prashant Kishor. The survey predicted 23 out of 30 seats for BJP while pointing that TMC will be reduced to just 5 seats.
The leaked IPAC image also showed that Mamata Banerjee was all set to lose from Nandigram. However, as soon as the news of the leaked image hit the newsstands, IPAC issued a statement on Twitter saying that BJP had forged the image. IPAC also claimed that no one in their team uses a desktop and hence this image is fake.
Facing imminent defeat, @BJP4Bengal has now gone down to the level of using FAKE surveys in the name of I-PAC to keep the morale of their workers up!!
P.S: In I-PAC, no one uses desktops so at-least be smart in your effort to create fake survey / reports! 😉🤣 pic.twitter.com/lFaOo0DshU
— I-PAC (@IndianPAC) March 31, 2021
Prashant Kishor has been able to ply his trade in the business for so long, despite giving ridiculous RoIs because he knows when the ship is sinking and what is the opportune time to jump off it and into a lifeboat. By exposing the state of Mamata and TMC in the state, he is only trying to unload the guilt of sabotaging another party’s hopes in the Vidhan Sabha elections.
