The BJP has hit back at Janata Dal(United) national vice president Prashant Kishor for suggesting that his party, being the senior partner in the NDA in Bihar, should contest more seats than the BJP in the assembly election next year. Bihar Deputy CM and BJP leader Sushil Modi in a veiled attack said, “Those who have entered politics without any ideology, rather collating election data and running company for coining slogans, they are giving irresponsible statements against coalition Dharma and helping opposition.”

The two parties had contested equal number of seats in the Lok Sabha elections this year.

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“In my view, the Lok Sabha election formula cannot be repeated in the assembly polls,” Kishor earlier told newspersons yesterday in Patna.

Modi took to Twitter today and wrote, “The 2020 Assembly Elections in the state will be fought under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi and CM Nitish Kumar. The seat sharing formulae will be worked upon by the top leadership of both the parties at an appropriate time. There is no problem in that.

“Those who have entered politics without any ideology, rather collating election data and running company for coining slogans, they are giving irresponsible statements against coalition Dharma and helping opposition.”
He further wrote, “A person involved in the business of profit will first prepare the market for his services, and thinks about the national interest later.”

Giving an equally sarcastic reply to this Kishor tweeted back (in Hindi), “Nitish Kumar’s leadership and JD (U) being the largest party has been decided by the people of Bihar and not by any political party’s leader or its top leadership. Listening to a lecture by Sushil Modi on political dignity and ideology is a humbling experience, who in 2015, even after losing, became the Deputy CM due to circumstances.”

He has in the recent past rankled the BJP with his continuous outbursts against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

He had tweeted against it and even criticized his own party for supporting CAB in the parliament, besides coming down heavily on Congress for not participating in the anti-CAA protests or party president Sonia Gandhi not speaking o the issue.

Prashant Kishor also disagreed with Home Minister Amit Shah’s explanation that there was no link between the National Population Register (NPR) and the NRC.

“Nobody needs to prove the link between NPA and NRC. The documents speak for themselves and they state that NPR is the first step for NRC. This is not a matter of an individual. It was stated by the President in his address. This entire NRC and NPR debate are linked to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill of 2003, during which, for the first time it was defined that after NPR, if the government wishes, they can do NRC,” he told ANI.

He also said that on several occasions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself had spoken about NRC.

“NRC is a subset of the NPR. Now it is up to the government what they want to do. The government after implementing NPR may say that they won’t go ahead with the NRC, but according to the process, NPR is a prerequisite to NRC. According to government documents, NPR and NRC are linked,” he added.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has roped in election strategist Prashant Kishor’s consultancy firm I-PAC for “image makeover” as Delhi is set to go to the polls next year.

However, when asked about it, Kishor replied it is my company I-PAC that has been hired by Kejriwal. “I am associated with the company but do not own it. There is no reason why this professional collaboration should in any way interfere with my party’s political goals.

The Kishor-led political consultancy firm I-PAC was part of the successful election campaign of Narendra Modi in 2014 when he was BJP’s prime ministerial candidate.

Currently, I-PAC is working on the Trinamool Congress’ re-election campaign for the 2021 West Bengal Assembly election.

After facing a stiff challenge from the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, Mamata Banerjee had engaged the poll planner to halt the BJP’s growing influence in Bengal ahead of the crucial state election.

Janata Dal-United (JD-U) national Vice President Prashant Kishor has also been instrumental in YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s big victory in Andhra defeating TDP chief and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.

Prashant Kishor is credited for formulating the election strategy for Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 elections.

The much-vaunted “chai pe charcha” (chat over tea) and 3D hologram rallies were said to be Kishor’s brainchild.

He subsequently ran successful campaigns for JD(U) in 2015 Bihar elections and for Congress in 2017 Punjab polls. His wrote a successful story in Punjab in helping the Congress come back to power after two successive electoral losses.