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Kishor resigns as Punjab CM’s adviser ahead of polls
Chandigarh: Months before the state assembly elections, poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Thursday resigned as principal adviser to Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, saying he was taking a “temporary break” from an active role in public life
Chandigarh: Months before the state assembly elections, poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Thursday resigned as principal adviser to Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, saying he was taking a “temporary break” from an active role in public life.
The political strategist’s decision also came amid talks of his likely induction into the Congress at national level.
In a letter to the chief minister, Kishor said he has not been able to take over the responsibilities as his principal adviser in view of his decision to take a temporary break from active role in public life.
“Since I am yet to decide on my future course of action, I write to request you to kindly relieve me from this responsibility. I take this opportunity to thank you for considering me for this position,” he said.
Kishor, or ‘PK’, as he is often called in political circles, and his agency, Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), had worked with the Congress in Punjab in the 2017 assembly polls with Singh as the state unit chief. He was also the brain behind the ‘Coffee with Captain’ and ‘Punjab da Captain’ that had worked well for the party.
On March 1 this year, the chief minister had appointed Kishor as his principal advisor and given him the rank and status of a cabinet minister. Kishor was paid a token honorarium of ₹1 per month, but was entitled to a fully-furnished government residence and camp office, executive class travel, official vehicle, medical facilities and secretarial staff as admissible to a cabinet minister.
During his term as principal advisor to Singh, Kishor held meetings with the party’s first time MLAs and top officials of the state government to gather feedback on the ground realities before he turned busy to work for Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and M K Stalin-led Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in the West Bengal and Tamil Nadu elections, respectively.
Following TMC and DMK’s victory in May, Kishor announced his retirement from election management work and said he would leave the poll strategy business to others in his company.
On his appointment in Punjab, he said, “If you help someone win an election, it is nothing if they offer you a principal adviser or adviser’s post. They always like you to be by their side because it suits them. It is for me to decide whether I want to do that or not. I am telling you that I am not doing this work for anybody anymore”.
