After the landslide victory of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the TMC on Tuesday has extended its association with Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) till the 2026 West Bengal Assembly election.
According to TMC sources, I-PAC’s modalities of functioning with the TMC are being formalized and as along with I-PAC’s Hyderabad office the Kolkata office will also be operational.
“After winning the assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee became the main opposition face against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The TMC is planning to contest the election from other states as well. Prashant Kishor’s extension with the TMC will give TMC an impetus to contest the 2024 Lok Sabha polls against the BJP”, claimed the TMC sources.
Notably, Prashant Kishore’s strategies like ‘Duare Sarkar' (government at door step) scheme and slogan like ‘Bangla Nijer Meyekei Chaye’ (Bengal wants its own daughter) had helped the ruling Trinamool Congress regain the almost lost ground in West Bengal.
In the run-up to the assembly poll, the poll strategist had time-and-again stated that the TMC will get 200 plus seats and the BJP will not get three digit seats. During the election the BJP had leaked an audio clip of Prashant where the poll strategist was heard saying that due to the popularity of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the BJP will win the polls.
Clearing the air, the poll strategist stated that it was a doctored clip and was edited by the saffron camp.
Incidentally, a month before when the poll result was declared, poll strategist Prashant Kishor stated that he will retire from election management as he ‘had enough and wanted to do something new’.
After the fall in vote margin in the Lok Sabha election in 2019 and the rise of BJP, TMC to retain back its power had inducted Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC against a sum of 400 crore rupees.
Apart from TMC, Prashant Kishor’s had also contributed to DMK’s win in Tamil Nadu.
It is pertinent to mention that in the recent past Prashant had also met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in his Mumbai residence and had lunch with him. While the Bengal poll was on, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had appointed Prashant as his principal adviser.
Meanwhile, criticizing the move, West Bengal BJP Chief Dilip Ghosh said that the TMC is thinking that I-PAC had brought them back to power and that the party is "insulting the common public that voted for them".
