CHANDIGARH: It’s official. Thirty-seven-year-old election strategist Prashant Kishor, who managed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, will now be managing the Punjab Congress campaign for the 2017 Assembly elections.
Punjab Congress president Capt Amarinder Singh on Saturday said, “The All India Congress Committee has given its approval for Prashant Kishor to assist the Punjab Congress in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Punjab.”
Kishor not just managed Modi’s election campaign, he also took care of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s and the JD(U)’s campaigns even as the grand alliance came to power in Bihar after defeating the BJP. He has been credited for Modi’s win in the 2012 Assembly elections of Gujarat. The Congress has been out of power in Punjab for the last nine years, having been defeated twice by ruling SAD-BJP combine. Capt Amarinder Singh was keen to have Kishor on board and the party has now agreed to it.
He is likely to camp in the state from around June. Sources add that Kishor has already met Amarinder thrice and, in their last meeting, the duo deliberated on the party strategy for the 2017 elections, the use of social media, door-to-door campaigning and ways to counter the popularity of the AAP among the youth.
Amarinder is also working on strengthening the Congress’s social media team, keeping in mind the youth who form 50 per cent of the state’s population. Kishor also visited the social media war-room being set up by the party and discussed the ongoing campaign to reach out to the youth. Kishor had then sent his team in the state to make an assessment of the ground situation and carry out a survey ahead of formulating the party’s strategy.
The party is working on strategies to strengthen like-minded and secular parties. Punjab People’s Party headed by Manpreet Singh Badal the estranged nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal merged with the Congress last month. Interestingly last month Kishor had been appointed as advisor to Bihar CM Nitish Kumar for Planning and Programme Implementation.