Prashant Kishor to take cabinet rank in Punjab government soon after IPAC ‘leak’ shows Mamata’s defeat in West Bengal

The so-called ‘master poll strategist’ of the Indian election landscape, Prashant Kishor is all set to pack his bags from West Bengal, and traverse on his nomadic journey to the state of Punjab for his next assignment, fearing an imminent defeat of Trinamool Congress (TMC) and Mamata Banerjee. As reported previously by TFI, the political strategist, who has been appointed in the rank and status of a cabinet minister in Punjab by none other than CM Captain Amarinder Singh, will be paid a token honorarium of ₹1 per month.

Seems pretty noble, right? However, the devil is in the details and turns out, Kishor will be given perks of the post of a Cabinet Minister and will enjoy his staycation leisurely in government bungalows.

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 as admissible to a cabinet minister in Punjab. Amarinder’s principal adviser has also been allowed an expenditure of up to ₹5,000 per month on hospitality. His term will be co-terminus with the tenure of the present Chief Minister.

Read more: After destroying Mamata Banerjee, Prashant Kishor begins the ‘Destroy Amarinder’ campaign

With such a nifty package in the offing, Prashant would have been a fool to pass up on the opportunity, especially after leaked survey reports of his organisation IPAC (Indian Political Action Committee) came to light.

IPAC is the poll agency run by Prashant Kishor and the leaked image shows survey of the 30 seats which go to the polls in phase two today. The survey predicts 23 out of 30 seats for BJP while pointing that TMC will be reduced to just 5 seats. In phase two of the elections, the 30 assembly seats up for grabs are spread across three districts viz. South 24 Parganas, Bankura, and Medinipur. 171 candidates are in the fray with 152 men and 19 women. However, it is the clash at the Nandigram seat which is being touted as the main event of the entire election.

The leaked IPAC image shows that Mamata Banerjee is 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. The organisation tweeted,

“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!”

However, leak or no leak, the fact that Kishor did not even wait till May 2 to announce his new destination to Punjab should speak volumes about the confidence he has in his work. The high-handedness of Kishor and his team had sparked a mass exodus from Mamata’s party TMC with all the party stalwarts – Dinesh Trivedi, Suvendu Adhikari and Rajib Banerjee all directly or indirectly hitting out at Kishor post their exit from the TMC.

Kishor has a penchant for biting off the hand that feeds him and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar can attest to this fact. Kumar actively aided Kishor’s rise in the Indian polity and even made him the Vice President of Janata Dal (United). However, Kishor was later thrown out of the party after his incessant personal attacks against the Bihar Chief Minister.

Such has been the illustrious resume of Prashant Kishor that he has made his entire career after contributing to the win of Narendra Modi in 2014 and later turning against him to stay in the limelight. But with the defeat in Bengal, another feather will be added in Kishor’s illustrious cap. But a desperate opposition, even more, frantic to dislodge the Modi winning streak will turn to Kishor, once again and appoint him as their poll strategist. Despite giving out such poor ROI, the business is booming for Kishor and he has only PM Narendra Modi to thank for it.