Report on sitting MLAs draws wedge between TRS, Prashant Kishor
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, November 15: Relations between the ruling Telangana Rashtra Samithi and the I-Pac of Prashant Kishor seems frozen. The ground activities of the I-Pac in Telangana are stated to be in a state of disarray, with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) reported to be miffed with the electoral strategy for a report that didn’t go well with the ruling party.
The I-Pac workers, who work for salaries on behalf of the clients (political parties), in Telangana are busy speculating the cold relations of Kishor with KCR. Some of the workers claimed that the I-Pac account of TRS has gone into an inactive mode. This is at a time when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making a determined bid to make a strong base in Telangana as part of the party’s ‘Mission South’.
“It all happened because of a report. The I-Pac as part of the standard procedure had prepared a report on the sitting MLAs. The report was negative for several MLAs. The report called for a replacement of several sitting legislators,” sources in the I-Pac said.
While the I-Pac had reportedly its way in running the election campaign for the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, the ground managers of Kishor came across a tough task master in KCR, who was not as pliant as his West Bengal counterpart. “Somehow the report got leaked and the TRS MLAs got wind of it. Some of them got in touch with the BJP, which is already keen to induct anybody in Telangana who can win votes. This angered the leadership of TRS,” sources revealed.
Kishor is busy with his ‘padyatra’ in Bihar where he is seen to be building workers base to contest the next Assembly elections. The I-Pac currently is said to have two active electoral accounts – Andhra Pradesh and Meghalaya. It is also being talked in his agency that Kishor is too busy in Bihar to pay attention to the business of the election management for clients in other states.
KCR, who is facing the BJP heat in Telangana, had sought national limelight by meeting several Opposition leaders in his bid to build an alternative coalition against the BJP-led NDA. However, Congress being a rival in Telangana has made KCR’s national bid a non-starter.
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