The recent opinion polls on the coming state assembly elections possibly forced Congress to used the services of political strategist Prashant Kishor. Two surveys indicate win for BJP in the Uttarakhand- which will go to polls on 15 February.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat constantly claims that Congress will win 45 to 55 seats in the state assembly elections. The claim is big as state assembly consists of 70 members only and none of the political parties have ever won more than 36 seats in the hill state-in the three state assembly elections held so far.
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The Uttarakhand Congress has formed a three member committee to coordinate with the I-PAC team. State Congress president Kishore Upadhyay said, “State Congress vice president Jot Singh Bisht, state secretary Vinod Chauhan and Girish Puneda will coordinate with the poll strategist Prashant Kishor and his team.”
Some member of the I-PAC have arrived and the core team is likely to reach Uttarakhand soon. The sudden involvement of the PK team for improving chances of Congress in coming polls has not come as a surprise. As Chief Minister Harish Rawat is struggling to gain the lost ground after the tv sting operation- in which he was allegedly shown talking about the bribe which he can pay to MLAs for supporting his government.
Till recently Harish Rawat was enjoying a monopoly. But, with Prashant Kishor become active in the hill state Rawat will have to share power with the poll strategist. The All India Congress Committee decided to take services of PK and the move took Rawat by surprise.
Prashant Kishor played key role in the big BJP win in the 2014 general election and also the historic win of Nitesh Kumar in Bihar polls. Now he has arrived in Uttarakhand to help Congress regain power.