Prashant Kishor snubs Congress; predicts 'BJP will be centre of Indian polity for decades'

In a big dampener for Congress, poll strategist Prashant Kishor predicted that BJP will remain a dominant force in Indian politics for the next many decades. Speaking at an event in the Museum of Goa, he disagreed with the opposition's claim that the Narendra Modi-led government will be voted out of power in 2024 merely due to anti-incumbency. To buttress his point, he highlighted the difference in people's approach towards the rise in fuel prices as compared to the UPA government era. 

According to him, it was difficult to envisage the saffron party fading away easily as it had crossed the 30 percent vote share at the national level. On this occasion, he asserted that former Congress president Rahul Gandhi was mistaken in believing that people will vote against BJP in due course of time. These remarks assume significance as speculation was rife that he was joining Congress after holding multiple meetings with the Wayanad MP. Earlier, Kishor had made it clear that there are no quick-fix solutions to the "deep-rooted problems" and "structural problems" of Congress. 

Prashant Kishor remarked, "You go and talk to any Congress leader or regional leader and they say, it is just a matter of time. People are getting fed up. There is anti-incumbency. People will throw him out. I doubt. It is not happening. Imagine this is a country where a 50 paisa increase in petrol and diesel prices were put on hold for an election for 5-6 months. In the same country, diesel prices have risen by Rs.70 and yet there is no discontent against the man. There is something deeper that you and I are not getting." 

He added, "BJP is going to be the Centre of the Indian polity whether they win or they lose. Like it was first 40 years for Congress, BJP is going nowhere. Once you secure 30% plus vote at India level, you are not going away in a hurry. You do not ever get into this trap that people are getting angry and that they will throw away Modi. Maybe they will throw away Modi. But BJP is not going anywhere. They are going to be here. You have fight it out for next many decades. Its not going in a hurry. That's where the problem lies with Rahul Gandhi probably. He thinks its just a matter of time before people thrown him away. It is not happening." 

Prashant Kishor's pan-party influence

After gaining acclaim owing to his crucial role in BJP winning a majority on its own in the 2014 General election, Kishor's IPAC has run successful campaigns for AAP (2015 Delhi Assembly election), Mahagatbandhan (2015 Bihar Assembly election), Congress (2017 Punjab Assembly election), YSCRP (Andhra Pradesh Assembly election), DMK (Tamil Nadu Assembly election) and TMC (West Bengal Assembly election). However, he failed to propel the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance to victory in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls. On March 1, Prashant Kishor was appointed as Punjab CM Amarinder Singh's Principal Advisor.

While the poll strategist was tasked Congress' election campaign for the Punjab Assembly election due next year, he resigned from this post on August 5 itself citing that he wanted to take a "temporary break" from an active role in public life. This came in the wake of his decision to quit the political strategy space after the West Bengal Assembly polls. At present, he is reportedly helping TMC to make inroads in Goa ahead of the 2022 Assembly election.