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Prashant Kishor plays parties on political math

Congress facing ignominy of a corporate makeover

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There cannot be a grimmer trajectory for Indian democracy than political parties that, instead of relying on party machinery or deliberating with senior leaders and cadres, now bank on communication strategists and statistics whizkids for success in elections. Riding high on his second consecutive success in February 2015, this time marketing Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Prashant Kishor, or PK, was the cynosure of all eyes. His office in the CM’s bungalow in Patna — just adjacent to Nitish’s bedroom had more visitors lined up than the Janata Dal (U) office did after the resounding victory of the Maha Gathbandan. Just a year earlier, his team of 200 full-time and more than 1,000 part-time volunteers had cracked the right math for the then Chief Minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, to win the Lok Sabha polls hands down, reducing rival Congress to just double digits.

In a political landscape riddled with divisions of caste, community, identity and floating votes, where an MP or an MLA needs no more than 20-30 per cent votes to be elected, communication strategists have a field day by helping parties cobble up a suitable combination. Like a true professional, PK, after ending his tenure as a United Nations health official, had actually returned to help Congress’ youthful face Rahul Gandhi become the PM, but ended up aiding Modi to the high chair. He befriended Modi ahead of Gujarat’s 2012 Assembly elections. Projected to be in the league of presidential spinmeisters of the US such as David Axelrod and Joel Benenson, he added a new dimension to Indian politics by running a high-wattage campaign for the 2014 General Election. He meticulously executed the ‘Chai pe Charcha’ campaigns, projecting Modi as a development messiah and a moderniser. But soon this Brahmin from Buxar, Bihar had a change of heart and moved to Patna to anoint Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister of Bihar. PK came full circle when he returned to Rahul Gandhi, who entrusted him with raising the party’s fortunes in UP and Punjab. He has been trying to give Congress a healthier outlook by doing away with the system of patronage, bringing in a sense of urgency, and injecting fresh blood from the lower levels up. But there is already heartburn at Congress headquarters, where it is believed he has relegated party office bearers to naught. Even day-to-day decisions are taken at Gandhi’s Tuglaq Road residence in confidence with PK, said a general secretary sitting idle in his office. But what is making a true mockery of the democratic process is that the strategist now wants to portray the 130-year-old party as an inclusive national party. There cannot be a bigger tragic irony that an edifice built by Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru now being forced to undergo a corporate-style image makeover. Even Congress leaders confide that PK couldn’t have helped Modi and later Nitish, if they had not proved worth as leaders. They say over the same period, successful Arvind Kejriwals, Mamata Banerjees, and Jayalalithaas didn’t need a PK. Though it is too early to say how the Congress campaign will progress, it is safe to say that if PK succeeds in achieving the unthinkable, i.e., to give his original mentor Rahul Gandhi a reason to smile, the trajectory of Indian politics will change forever.  

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