Prashant Kishor sifts BJP’s gains & scope for counter offensive
Prashant Kishor
By Our Special Correspondent
New Delhi, December 9: At a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken winds out of the sails of the Opposition camp, election strategist Prashant Kishor counts saffron outfit’s four vote machines and an equal number of bases which can build a counter narrative. Kishor believes that until the Opposition comes out with superior narratives on BJP’s four vote catching planks there will be no chance in 7 of 10 instances against the saffron outfit.
Speaking to a television channel in Bihar, Kishor said that the BJP is getting votes principally on four counts – Hindutva, nationalism, organizational strength, and Labarthi Yojna (beneficiary schemes). He argued that until the Opposition builds a better narrative on all these four pillars of the BJP the chance to defeat the saffron outfit could at best be two or three out of 10 instances.
In the recent Assembly elections, the BJP lost Himachal Pradesh and Karnataka. But the BJP won a number of states in the last two years which included the likes of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Goa, Tripura, Manipur, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Rajasthan. Kishor is seen to be evidently accurate in his analysis of the BJP as the saffron outfit is almost winning 80 per cent of the elections in its strength areas.
Kishor is currently focusing in his outreach programme in Bihar where he claims to be working for an alternative to the existing political parties in the state. He claims that several thousands of the people in Bihar want to meet him and hold discussions on the alternative roadmap for the state.
Speaking to another television channel, Kishore listed out four segments of the electoral constituencies who don’t vote for the BJP. Arguing that more than 50 per cent of the Hindus don’t vote for the BJP despite the politics of Hindtuva of the saffron outfit, Kishore counted followers of Gandhi, Ambedkar, socialists, and communists as the groups against the ideology of the ruling party at the Centre. Kishor believes that the counter narrative to the politics of the BJP could be possible from the four electoral constituencies who don’t vote for the BJP.
Kishor told the television channel that “it was Mahatma Gandho who could get all the four political ideological groups to work together during the freedom struggle. Besides his own followers, Mahatma Gandhi was able to bring the Communists, socialists, and Amdekarite to work with him.”
While Kishor seems to be making an accurate political analysis, he appears underestimating the the BJP’s score chart in raising the vote share even in the Assembly elections. The BJP is seen to have gained at the expense of the socialists in the Hindi heartland. The communists have largely lost the political space. The Ambedkarites are without a pan-India political platform.
About The Author
