Ending prolonged speculation, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday appeared set to hire political and electoral strategist Prashant Kishor after the 42-year-old met Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for almost two hours at the State Secretariat. Ms. Banerjee’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, a Lok Sabha MP, also attended the meeting.
A Trinamool official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Mr. Kishor and the party had had exploratory talks three years ago, but both sides could not agree on many issues then.
On Thursday, however, the talks proceeded smoothly and Mr. Kishor is expected to start working for the Trinamool in a few weeks, the pary leader said. “What we have heard is Didi [Ms. Banerjee] wanted Mr. Kishor to work with us. Mr. Kishor requested for a month’s time,” the leader said.
In the lead-up to Mr. Kishor’s meeting, the Trinamool kept a tight lid on the developments with not even the journalists stationed at the State Secretariat aware of the visit. It was only hours after Mr. Kishor had left that the mediapersons got to know about the meeting.
The meeting with Mr. Kishor was attended only by Mr. Banerjee, who has been in touch with the strategist.
“We are told that Mr. Kishor will advise Trinamool on virtually everything after going through the inner party report. From candidate selection, campaign plan, launch of schemes, strategy planning, connecting the schemes with the election to designing of the slogans — he will be consulted at every step,” the party leader said.
Mr. Banerjee did try to get Mr. Kishor on board in 2016 but the talks failed as “either the fee did not work out or Didi rejected his planning,” Trinamool officials said. However, some Trinamool officials voiced concern about Mr. Kishor still being a vice- president of the JD(U), a constituent of the BJP-led NDA.
“Perhaps he needs to sort it out and asked for time,” a Trinamool official added.
