A lot has changed since the summer of 2019 when general elections were held. At that time, two chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal came down to Andhra Pradesh to campaign for Chandrababu Naidu, to help him to defeat Jaganmohan Reddy. The Telugu Desam chief was engaged in a bitter and tough electoral battle with Jagan whose YSRCP was assisted by Prashant Kishor. Naidu had then called Kishor a “Bihari dacoit”, a comment that had created political ripples.
Mamata and Kejriwal obviously saw how Kishor’s I-PAC had played a part in fashioning Jagan’s victory. So despite the fact that they had then campaigned for anti-Kishor Naidu, they have gone to I-PAC ahead of the Bengal and Delhi assembly elections respectively.
This will not be music to Naidu’s ears. More so because his political strategy of aligning with the Congress and burning bridges with the BJP came a cropper in the elections, denting his stature as a savvy political mind.
Kishor is also believed to be helping the DMK with the campaign in Tamil Nadu ahead of 2021. MK Stalin had flown down to Vijayawada for Jagan’s swearing-in ceremony in May 2019.
Categories: National