Prashant Kishor
Nitish critic Prashant Kishor draws flak from disgruntled TMC leaders
Kolkata/IBNS: Poll strategist and former JD(U) leader Prashant, who seems to have sharpened his attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar even after his win in the recent Bihar elections, is being doubted by several TMC leaders whether he would be able to ensure a win for the party in assembly polls which are barely six months away.
An NDTV report said the doubting voices have become louder after he failed to meet disgruntled Trinamool leader Shuvendu Adhikari, and now TMC has started reaching out to the West Bengal transport minister instead of depending on Kishor.
The report said that the Left front and the Congress, who have formed an alliance to fight the West Bengal assembly polls, met on Tuesday to chalk out their strategy. BJP, which wants to topple the Trinamool Congress government in the state, also held meetings yesterday. Sunil Deodhar, the party strategist credited with BJP's win in Tripura, was present in the meetings among other top leaders.
Deodhar, who is in charge of Medinipur Zone, exhorted confidence that BJP will win by two thirds majority.
Top leaders from Delhi have divided West Bengal into five zones and appointed a central leader of the party in charge of each zone.
According to the NDTV report, the Rarhbanga Zone has been assigned to Binod Sonkar, Uttar Banga to Harish Dwivedi, Kolkata to Dushyant Gautam and Nabadwip to Binod Tawade.
While the ruling TMC is depending on Kishor for its win for a third term, BJP, which emerged as the second largest party with 74 seats, only one less than RJD which emerged as the largest party in Bihar, has Amit Shah as its chief strategist. Taking a dig at the TMC, state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, without naming Prashant Kishor, said BJP doesn't hire outsiders to boost the party's chances of victory in the elections, the report added.
The report said zone heads will meet on November 18, 19 and 20, to review the party's position and send a report to Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Shah, during his visit to Bengal on November 6 and 7 last, had set the target of 200 out of 294 seats in Bengal for the BJP.
The report said that Shah may visit the state again on November 30 depending on the report submitted by zone heads.
TMC leaders like Sougata Roy have dismissed Shah's target, calling it a "day dream", though dissent against Prashant Kishor has been growing since a long time.
"Do we have to learn politics from PK? Who is PK? If Trinamool suffers in Bengal, it will all be PK's fault," Niamat Sheikh, Trinamool MLA from Murshidabad district, had said at a public meeting on Sunday, the NDTV report said.
The report said six weeks ago, Cooch Behar MLA Mihir Goswami expressing his disgust on Prashant Kishor's interference quit all organizational posts in the party.
He even called Kishor a "contractor" and went on to question TMC chief Mamata Banerjee's position in the party and her role in decision making.
"Is Trinamool still Mamata Banerjee's party?" he questioned, the report said.
"The party it seems is being handed to a contractor. A corporate outfit like IPAC... will give orders or party organizational matters and a veteran politician like me will have to obey, that is painful," he stated, said the report.
On Tuesday, another MLA from Sitai in Cooch Behar district questioned Prashant Kishor's IPAC on the similar lines.
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