Will quit my profession if BJP wins over 100 seats in Bengal: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor

Kolkata: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor stuck to his earlier commitment saying that he would quit his profession for good if the BJP crosses two-digit figure in West Bengal’s assembly elections and claimed that Mamata Banerjee would return to power for the third term.

Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in a bid to win the 294-seat West Bengal assembly elections has hired Prashant Kishor and his IPAC two years ago against a hefty fee.

BJP, aiming to unseat the Mamata Banerjeee government in the hustings, has targeted 200 seats in the assembly after the saffron brigade captured 18 Lok Sabha constituencies in 2019.

According to Prashant Kishor’s prediction, the BJP would not get more than 99 seats, where the two digit figure ends.

“If BJP wins more than 100 seats in Bengal, then I will leave this job, I will leave IPAC as well. I will do something else, but not this work,” Prashan Kishor told a TV news channel.

“I will stop this work. I will not exist as I am today. You will never see me again aiding any other political campaign,” added Mr Kishor, who got a new job under the Punjab Chief Minister.

“I lost Uttar Pradesh but there we didn’t get to do what we wanted. But I don’t have that excuse in Bengal and Didi has given me as much freedom to work as I wanted. If I lose Bengal, I would accept that I am not fit for this job,” the TV news quoted Prashant Kishor.

The Bharatiya Janata Party recently took a jibe at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after her political strategist was appointed as the principal advisor of Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh.

BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra said that Mr Kishor ‘left’ Mamata Banerjee ‘even before the poll results were announced’.

“Prashant has also left Didi (Banerjee). Even before the election results are announced, her biggest adviser has joined someone else. This speaks a lot,” Mr Patra told reporters.

On Monday, Captain Amarinder Singh announced that Prashan Kishor has joined him as his political advisor.

“Prashant Kishor has joined me as my Principal Advisor. Look forward to working together for the betterment of the people of Punjab,” Mr Singh had said in a tweet.

BJP in Bengal has a slogan “Unishe half ekushey saaf’ ( in 2019 Parliament poll we made the TMC half and we finish the TMC in 2021 assembly poll).

In 2019, the TMC reduced to 22 from 33 seats, while BJP increased to 18 from 2 seats and Congress got only 2  f the total 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal.