Prashant Kishor: The man behind AAP’s strategies

Election strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday recordedanother victory. His client Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won theDelhi election with a huge margin for the third consecutive time. After thevictory, Prashant Kishor tweeted, "Thank you Delhi for standing up to protectthe soul of India!"

Thank you Delhi for standing up to protect the soul of India!

— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) February 11, 2020

According to sources, six months ago Prashant Kishorhad made a deal with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal to help him in makingstrategies for the Delhi Assembly election 2020.

Later, Kishor advised Kejriwal to drop theconfrontationist attitude and rebrand himself as the development man. Afterthat Kejriwal had stopped targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi and focused onthe delivery of promises like CCTVs and free bus rides.

Sources said that after the central governmentannounced a new trust to oversee the building of a Ram temple at Ayodhya, aplan was made for AAP. Arvind Kejriwal gave an interview to all the newspapersso that the AAP chief snagged prominent space the next day. Also, Kejriwal hadsent his report card to 25,000 homes in every constituency. This was followedby 15,000 personalised letters to the influential voters who mattered the most.These are the part of Kishor's strategy.

On the other hand, after the politics of polarisationstarted dominating headlines, Kejriwal started to chant Hanuman Chalisa. Aprotest march was also planned after BJP MP called Kejriwal a "terrorist".

It may be mentioned here that on January 29, JanataDal (United) has expelled Prashant Kishor from their party for raisingquestions over Nitish Kumar over his stand on Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). Now, Kishor's victory gave NitishKumar a clear message ahead of the Bihar election later this year.

Meanwhile, Kishor has the tougher job of helping Mamata Banerjee and DMK's MK Stalin for the upcoming State Assembly elections. Earlier, he had helped Narendra Modi to win his 2011 Gujrat Assembly election and 2014 Lok Sabha election. In the year 2015, he helped Nitish Kumar; in 2017 he helped Captain Amarinder sing to win Punjab election. In 2019, Kishor helped the YSR Congress Party to win the Andhra Pradesh assembly election.