Political strategist Prashant Kishor, who has been working as the advisor of West Bengal's ruling party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC), asserted on Monday that the BJP, which is hopeful of topping the Mamata Banerjee government ruling the state since 2011, will not be able to get to three-digit figures in the coming Assembly elections.
He said he would quit the microblogging site if he is proved wrong.
"For all the hype AMPLIFIED by a section of supportive media, in reality BJP will struggle to CROSS DOUBLE DIGITS in #WestBengal," Kishor tweeted.
"PS: Please save this tweet and if BJP does any better I must quit this space!" he added.
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Kishor's remarks came amid the BJP's repeated claims that they will bag more than 200 seats in the coming Assembly elections. Union home minister Amit Shah reiterated this during his visit to the state on Sunday.
This is the first time Kishor made any such prediction.
West Bengal has 294 Assembly seats and 147 seats are required to gain the majority. In 2016 Assembly elections, the TMC won 211. The BJP won only three but, going by the trends of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP was ahead of others in 129 seats.
However, in the Assembly byelections held in November 2019, the TMC won Kharagpur Sadar and Kaliaganj where the BJP had a significant lead over the TMC in the Lok Sabha elections.
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Due to MLAs from other parties joining the BJP, the party has now 22 MLAs.
Kishor's organisation, Indian Political Action Committee, or I-PAC, which has been working with the TMC since June 2019, has also been at the centre of a raging controversy of late, as a series of senior TMC leaders publicly expressed their grievances over "too much organisational intervention" by Kishor's agency.
These include Barrackpore MLA Silbhadra Dutta, Cooch Behar Dakshin MLA Mihir Goswami and state-level leader Diptangshu Chowdhury, who have joined the BJP.
Other TMC leaders who have publicly expressed their grievances but have not deserted the party include veteran MLAs Jatu Lahiri and Niyamat Sheikh.
Apart from finalising the TMC's electoral strategy, Kishor's organisation is also helping the party in its organisational restructuring, from community development block to state-level.
"Those who are finding their importance reduced during the reorganisation are blaming Kishor's agency to make them the scapegoat. Kishor's agency is helping the state leadership in getting the real picture on the image of the local leaders and, perhaps, this is why the disgruntled ones are targeting Kishor," said a senior TMC leader who did not want to be named.
