Maharashtra politics saw a flutter on Friday as many sought-after polls mastermind Prashant Kishor called on Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar and the duo broke bread over lunch in Mumbai.
After the luncheon, both Pawar and Prashant Kishor, oft referred to as 'PK' in political circles, kept mum on their meeting, further fuelling speculation.
The update of Kishor's meeting with the NCP chief left Twitterati speculating about the reason behind the meet. While some of them were hinting that NCP is hiring Kishor for the strategy, others said that the duo might discuss the prospectus of the third alliance.
Now, the NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik has, however, clarified that in meeting no discussion on appointing PK as strategist of NCP happened.
"Prashant Kishor met NCP chief Sharad Pawar yesterday. The meeting lasted for nearly 3 hours. There was no discussion on appointing him as strategist of NCP. Pawar sahab wants to unite Opposition parties. Efforts will be made towards this objective in coming days," Malik was quoted as saying by ANI.
The victory of the TMC, DMK and LDF in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala had given rise to the possibility of the Opposition parties coming together to form a Federal Front to take on the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. It was speculated that Prashant Kishor, the architect of the victories of Mamata Banerjee and M.K. Stalin could play a key role in making of a grand Opposition alliance.
Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who had worked with Mamata Banerjee and her party in the run-up to the elections had repeatedly predicted the BJP's loss in West Bengal, facing tremendous backlash from the party and its supporters over the last few months.
The election strategist, who had claimed back in December that the BJP will struggle to cross double digits in the West Bengal assembly polls or else he will quit, announced he is "quitting this space" after the TMC's historic win in Bengal.
The strategist, in his early forties, has loads of experience in successfully crafting election strategies, including Narendra Modi's first prime ministerial campaign in 2014 when he was the Gujarat chief minister.
Kishor spent months on end carefully crafting Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's 2015 campaign and subsequently helped devise Congress's Captain Amarinder Singh's successful bid in Punjab. He proved he is the master of his craft when he helped catapult Jagan Mohan Reddy of the YSR Congress to power in Andhra Pradesh in 2019. He also advised Arvind Kejriwal during the 2020 Delhi assembly elections. While the recent victories of TMC in Bengal and Stalin in Tamil Nadu has added to his victory basket.
(With inputs from PTI)
