Is poll strategist and national vice-president of Bihar ruling party Janata Dal (United) Prashant Kishor on the way out of the party after his meeting with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday in Kolkata?
If JD(U) sources are to be believed, Mr. Kishor’s days in the party are numbered.
Party leaders said the issue of Mr. Kishor meeting Ms. Banerjee would definitely be raked up during the JD(U)’s national executive meeting on Sunday here.
“At present, Mr. Kishor is national vice-president of the JD(U) and it is up to him to explain what transpired between him and Mamata Banerjee and in what capacity,” said JD(U) principal general secretary K.C. Tyagi.
Mr. Tyagi further said, “any decision can be taken by party president Nitish Kumar on Mr. Kishor.”
JD(U) leader and spokesperson Ajay Alok too said, “Prashant is at present national vice-president of the party…he had come and joined the party as an activist and became the party’s national vice-president, but if he wants to play the role of a poll strategist, it’s his choice.”
Other party sources said even Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not know about Mr. Kishor’s meeting with Ms. Banerjee. Mr. Kishor is said to have signed a pact with the TMC for the Assembly elections due in West Bengal in 2021.
In the just-concluded Parliamentary and Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, Mr. Kishor worked for Jagan Mohan Reddy and his party had come out with spectacular results despite a buzz across the country on ‘PM Modi and muscular nationalism.’
Mr. Kishor, for quite sometime, was feeling isolated in the JD(U) after his two “upsetting” remarks against Mr. Kumar. Even during the Lok Sabha poll campaign, his absence was conspicuous in Bihar.
“Nitish Kumar should have sought a fresh mandate instead of making an alliance with the BJP in 2017,” Mr. Kishor had said, and later while addressing university students in Muzaffarpur, told them, “if I can make PM and CM, why can’t I make MLAs and MPs?”.
Earlier, when Mr. Kishor joined the party in October 2018, Mr. Kumar had said, “he is the future.”
