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Mamata takes lessons in politics from Prashant Kishor

NewsMamata takes lessons in politics from Prashant Kishor

New Delhi: After spending more than four decades in politics, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is taking lessons in politics from election strategist Prashant Kishor—this after her party, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) lost 20 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in the general elections. Amid raging anti-incumbency against the TMC government, the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had won only two seats in 2014, won 18 seats in 2019. The Congress won two seats.

Sources say that Mamata Banerjee’s new political tutor, who has started working for her from June this year, has asked her to watch her words, to think before she speaks and to stop commenting on every issue possible. This became obvious when Banerjee read out a prepared speech and looked for pointers while addressing a press conference in Kolkata recently.

A senior journalist from Kolkata, who has been reporting on Banerjee for the past 12 years, told this correspondent that he has not seen her reading out prepared speeches. “Mamata Banerjee is known for her impromptu speeches and speaking to the media without any hesitation. But what we saw today was totally different as she stuck to her point and the agenda of the press conference. She was reading and looking for pointers on her prepared notes,” the journalist added.

The other “makeover” the CM has got is that she has stopped commenting on everything under the sun, which is her habit. Sources say that Prashant Kishor has advised her not to comment on issues that she does not know anything about and that do not concern her. She has also been asked to work on her body language and present herself as a poised and calm politician. In other words, antics such as jumping out of her car and chasing people, while screaming at them for shouting Jai Shri Ram slogans, will have to stop.

According to a senior Trinamool Congress leader, Kishor is trying to give Banerjee an image makeover as she is getting increasingly perceived as an “unbalanced” and “temperamental” politician. Kishor wants to position her as a balanced and clear headed politician, he added.

According to sources, Prashant Kishor has set a three-point agenda for Mamata Banerjee, which includes anger management, stopping the aggravation of the communal divide in the state and to stop taking on the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The newly launched “Didi ke Bolo” (Tell Didi) campaign is believed to be the brainchild of Prashant Kishor and is in keeping with similar programmes initiated by Kishor when he worked for Congress’ Captain Amarinder Singh in Punjab.

According to sources in I-PAC, Kishor’s company, the “Didi ke Bolo” (Tell Didi) campaign, where people are supposed to call a mobile number or log on to a website and express their grievances, will serve two purposes. First, it will project the Chief Minister as someone who is concerned about her people and who directly wants to listen to their grievances; and, second, the I-PAC will gather the data of the people who use the service. The website where the grievances are being registered asks individuals’ details, including address, telephone numbers and WhatsApp numbers. Through this the company will create its own database of voters in Bengal, so that they can be contacted directly during election campaign.

However, some sections in the TMC have doubts about the ability of Prashant Kishor to script a victory for the TMC in the 2021 Assembly elections, as they believe that neither does Kishor know anything about the state nor does he understand its politics. These TMC leaders are worried that he will guide Banerjee according to the politics of North India.

“Prashant Kishor is new to Bengal and has little understanding of the politics here. See how the cut money issue backfired on the party. On Kishor’s advice, she asked her leaders to return the cut money (commission) they had taken from the people, and we are still dealing with the issue at the local level,” said a senior TMC leader on the condition of anonymity. The order to return “cut money” has increased unrest on the ground, with protests and demonstrations being held regularly against TMC leaders for not returning the “cut money” they have taken.

The TMC source further said that the biggest problem for Banerjee and Kishor would be taming the local and district level leaders. “The party does not have any discipline at the local level and I fail to understand how the situation can be rectified. Bengal has a history of political patronage, political violence and the involvement of musclemen in politics, while Kishor is talking about a civilised political campaign. I wonder if Kishor’s advice will be paid heed to all the way up to 2021,” the TMC leader added.

Mamata Banerjee, who is considered to be a political pundit in Bengal, had to rope in the services of Prashant Kishor and his political consultancy firm I-PAC after the TMC faced a serious setback in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls. The state goes to the Assembly elections in 2021.

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