Political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on Wednesday cautioned the Congress party against extrapolating the results of recently-concluded Karnataka assembly elections to the next year’s national elections. Prashant Kishor, in a statement shared by ‘Jan Suraaj’, his political campaign in Bihar, pointed to the pattern, or a lack of it, suggesting assembly election results should be taken as a precursor to the party’s performance in Lok Sabha elections.
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“I congratulate the Congress upon its success in Karnataka. But I would also like to caution leaders and workers of the party against mistaking the assembly poll outcome for a hint of what lies in store in Lok Sabha polls,” said Kishor, who has taken a break from his statewide foot march in Bihar after tearing a muscle in his left leg. He has been convalescing at an undisclosed location since then.
Kishor highlighted that Congress lost the 2014 Lok Sabha elections despite winning Karnataka assembly elections in the previous year and lost the 2019 parliamentary polls months after wresting three major states from BJP – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
“It may be recalled that in 2012 the Samajwadi Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh with a clear majority. Two years later in the Lok Sabha poll, BJP-led NDA swept the state, bagging 73 out of the 80 seats,” he pointed out.
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Reeling out statistics to buttress his point on Congress’ prospects in Lok Sabha polls, Kishor added, “The Congress would also do well to remember its success in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the 2018 assembly polls, which was followed by its miserable performance in these states just a few months later in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.”
Kishor gained prominence in 2011 when he worked as a key strategist for Narendra Modi’s successful campaign in the Gujarat state elections. He later played a crucial role in Modi’s successful bid for Prime Minister in the 2014 national elections. The 45-year-old political analyst has since then handled poll campaigns of leaders as diverse as Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, M K Stalin, Jaganmohan Reddy, and Mamata Banerjee.
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He hung up his boots after the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls and, a year later, launched ‘Jan Suraaj’ after prolonged but fruitless negotiations with top Congress leaders for revamping the grand old party.
