JULY 2019 l PARlIAMENTARIAN 73beyond the conventional practises of
fighting elections and then hoping for
the best. While Rahul’s objective in
2019 was to defeat Modi at all costs,
Kishor had suggested the aim should
be to revive the party from the
grassroot levels. This could happen
only if a ten -year revival plan was
implemented but it cost the Congress
dearly in the Lok Sabha elections,
southern success
Kishor’s winning formula has worked
in south India also. He proved his
mastery by propelling the YSR
Congress of YSR Jagan Mohan Reddy
to power with overwhelming majority
and handing over a shocking defeat to
N Chandrababu Naidu.
The YSR Congress has won 21 of 25
Lok Sabha seats and 151 out of the 175
assembly seats in Andhra Pradesh
where simultaneous elections were
held both for the assembly and Lok
Sabha constituencies.
Jagan Mohan founded YSR
Congress in 2011 breaking away from
the Congress but he lost the 2014
the Bharatiya Janata Party managed to
expand its seat share in West Bengal
from two in 2014 to 18 in recently
concluded 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
TMC wants to take Kishore’s assistance
to augment its strategy to counter BJP
ahead of 2021 state polls, sources have
told India Today TV.money matters
CAG spent almost Rs 2 crore on just
‘Chai pe Charcha’ during the 2014
parliamentary elections that played
around the theme that PM Modi was
a tea-seller running for the country’s
most powerful job. CAG’s total
administrative expenses during the
campaign was around Rs 3.5 crore.
It received ‘donations’ of almost Rs
8 crore and paid almost Rs 7 crore in
stipends and professional fees to
hundreds of volunteers who
orchestrated the BJP’s winning
campaign. ‘Chai pe Charcha’ was the
rath-yatra equivalent of BJP’s
campaign that helped create an aura
around Modi that culminated in BJP’s
resounding win.
IPAC, that won the Bihar elections
for Nitish, has also established a
corporate office in Mohali in Punjab.
IPAC received Rs 19 crore in 2015-16
as project management and execution
fees by doing “political consultancy”.
IPAC, like CAG too incurred most of
its expenses on hoardings, digital
media advertisements, promotion and
hiring volunteers for various
campaigns in Bihar.assembly election primarily due to lack
of organisational strength. His party
in the 2014 assembly elections had
polled 45.4 per cent votes for 66 seats
against TDP’s 48.2 per cent votes for
103 seats. Five years later, Prashant
Kishor and his India Political Action
Committee team identified his party’s
weaknesses and helped Jagan Mohan
build an organisation right from the
booth level structures upwards. Of
course, one has heard that YSR’s Jagan
Mohan Reddy had to fork out a lot of
money for the advice and inputs
provided by Kishor but Jagan,
presently chief minister of Andhra
Pradesh, is not grumbling.frontier Bengal
Political strategist Prashant Kishor
will work with Mamata Banerjee’s
Trinamool Congress for the 2021 West
Bengal assembly election, sources have
confirmed.
An agreement has been signed
between Prashant Kishor and the
TMC to this effect, sources said.
The development came shortly after
Trinmaool Congress chief and West
Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee held a meeting with Prashant
Kishor. The meeting between the two
lasted for two hours. Prashant Kishor
was accompanied by Abhishek
Banerjee, Mamata’s nephew. As per
reports, Kishor will start working with
the West Bengal CM next month
onwards.Trinamool Congress is facing
a challenging political situation sincefollowing his serial successes, he was
conTacTed By many parTies, which included
The congress, BuT despiTe runing up a good
friendship wiTh rahul gandhi, prashanT
kishor could noT do much