BJP minister asks ‘Who is Prashant Kishor?’. The poll strategist responds

Union Minister Hardeep Puri, answering a question on Friday, appeared to give the impression that he did not know about poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who also doubles up as JD(U) vice president. The BJP is running a coalition government in Bihar with the JD(U).

“Who is Prashant Kishor?” Hardeep Puri, who is also the co-incharge of the BJP for Delhi polls, had asked at a press conference in Delhi.

Taking note of the query, Kishor, who has been roped in by the Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi to power its election campaign, downplayed the remark and said he did not expect a senior minister to know an “ordinary man” like him.

“He is a senior minister. Why will he know an ordinary man like me? In Delhi, lakhs of people like me from UP-Bihar live and struggle. How will such a senior leader like Puri ji know so many people?” Kishor was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI.

The minister for housing and urban affairs said he did not know Kishor personally.

When reporters told the minister that Kishor was a part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, he said, “I was not there during that time.”

“May be I should know, but I do not know him (Kishor),” Puri said on being told by reporters that he was also part of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) -- the national vice-president of the Janata Dal (United).

On December 14, Kejriwal had announced that I-PAC had come on board with his party.

“Happy to share that Indian-PAC is coming on-board with us. Welcome aboard!” the Delhi chief minister had said in a tweet.

The election to the 70-member Delhi Assembly is due early next year. The national capital is set to witness a three-cornered fight with the AAP, which had won 67 seats in the last Assembly polls, seeking to retain power by defeating the BJP and the Congress.

The I-PAC had used innovative programmes such as “chai pe charcha” in the 2014 campaign for Modi.

The firm worked on a number of successful campaigns since 2014, including the one that brought JD(U) supremo and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to power in the state in 2015.

It also helped Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy win the Assembly polls and put up a good show in the general election this year.

(With PTI inputs)