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Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC feels the heat of TMC veterans
While one MLA was subtle in attacking Prashant Kishor’s agency I-PAC, another warned that it would be disastrous for a political party if it is dictated by another organisation.
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Poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who was roped in by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to set things right in the party is now facing the heat instead from a section of the party’s veterans who have lashed out against his agency I-PAC.
On Sunday TMC MLA from Barrackpore launched a veiled attack against Kishor’s team , before announcing that he would not contest the upcoming assembly elections in West Bengal.
“An outsider agency is teaching me how to do politics. I entered politics when I was in class 6 and today, I am 62 years old. But unfortunately, I get to hear from an employee of that agency that I don’t need to worry about votes because the agency has been roped in to fight the elections for us. They are asking me about my caste as they want to introduce caste-based politics. I told them that this is not Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh or Delhi,” said Silbhadra Dutta, TMCs lawmaker from Barrackpore assembly constituency.
Kishor, who earlier helped the Bharatiya Janata Party, Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and the YSR Congress Party win elections, was roped in by Banerjee after the BJP won 18 of the state’s 42 Lok Sabha seats in 2019. The TMC’s tally came down from 34 seats to 22. The BJP poses a challenge to Banerjee in the run-up to the assembly polls.
While Dutta was more subtle with his comments and didn’t name I-PAC, another TMC MLA had directly hit out at I-PAC earlier in October warning that it is not good for a political party if an agency gives directions on how the party should be run.
“If I-PAC, a contract agency, gives directions on how to run the party then it is not good for the party. If any political party wants a contract agency to run the party then there is 100% chance that the party would suffer. The workers should handle the work of the organization,” said Mihir Goswami, TMC MLA from Cooch Behar south.
A senior TMC leader on conditions of anonymity said that state transport minister’s Suvendu Adhikary’s perceived dislike of I-PAC’s interventions in organisational affairs was one of the many reasons that led to the widely speculated rift between the minister and the party.
“In 1995, I was councillor of an undivided Congress. I did not drop in using a parachute. Nor did I take an elevator. I took the stairs, step by step. No one can stop us,” Adhikary said while addressing a function in east Midnapore on Saturday that did not have TMC banners.
With eye set on the crucial 2021 Bengal assembly polls the TMC chief Mamata Banerjee recently carried out a major reshuffle in the party to bring in some new faces and axing some old guards. Insiders said that much of the inputs behind this reshuffle had come from Kishor and his team’s year-long assessment of the ground realities.
While IPAC refused to comment on this, TMC spokesperson Tapas Roy said: “They are our party veterans. But one has to abide by the party’s guidelines and accept whatever the party is thinking or doing. An individual is not above the party.”
The TMC is making attempts to extend an olive branch to the veterans who are apparently unhappy with the recent developments. North Bengal development minister Rabindranath Ghosh and tribal development minister Binoy Krishna Burman recently met Goswami. The TMC leaders, however, failed to meet Goswami.
