News Analysis India

Tag: IPAC

  • Congress leaders raise concerns as Prashant Kishor’s I-PAC signs deal with rival TRS

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Top Congress leaders on Monday raised serious concerns over Prashant Kishor’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) entering into a poll tie-up with the TRS in Telangana for next assembly elections in the state, sources said on Monday.

    They said the Congress leadership will seek clarifications from Kishor over the development before inducting him into the party.

    This arrangement with the TRS may come as a roadblock for Kishor’s entry into the Congress as the party is seeking to wrest power from the TRS in the state.

    The sources said the eight-member group constituted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to formulate the party’s strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls after Kishor made a presentation to the leadership took a serious note of I-PAC’s deal with the Chandrashekar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS).

    Some senior leaders of the eight-member group present during a meeting with Gandhi on Monday discussed the issue and raised concerns and are learnt to have told the leadership that it should seek clarifications from Kishor.

    Kishor is keen to join the Congress and has expressed his willingness to do so without any expectations, but after the latest development, senior leaders expressed doubts over his commitment as he already has arrangements with the party’s rivals in West Bengal and Bihar.

    The sources said some leaders have said there will be conflict of interest if the Congress goes ahead with having a poll arrangement with him.

    The Telangana unit of the Congress is also not happy with the party for discussing its strategy with Kishor.

    Earlier in the day, the Congress announced that an empowered group will be constituted to address the political challenges ahead and prepare the strategy for the 2024 elections.

    The sources said whether or not Kishor will be included in that group will be decided after his clarifications on the I-PAC-TRS deal.

    The Congress is now posed with a serious challenge of ironing out this issue, more so because Kishor has had a tie-up with Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal.

    The TMC has “poached” many Congress leaders in the recent past, much to the consternation of top party leadership.

    These include former Goa chief minister Luizinho Faleiro and Sushmita Dev, both of whom have been given Rajya Sabha tickets.

    Recently, former Assam Congress chief Ripun Bora also joined the TMC and Kishor reportedly congratulated him, which was claimed by Bora at a press conference in the national capital.

  • Goa polls 2022: Congress-GFP accuse Trinamool Congress of collecting data via voter awareness drive

    By PTI

    PANAJI: The Congress and Goa Forward Party on Saturday alleged the Trinamool Congress and poll strategy firm IPAC were collecting voter data in a “dubious manner” in the run up to the Goa Assembly polls scheduled for February 14.

    Goa Congress general secretary Sunil Kawthankar and GFP general secretary (organisation) Durgadas Kamat told reporters the two parties had jointly submitted a complaint with the Chief Election Commission in New Delhi against the TMC and IPAC.

    Kawthankar claimed the TMC and IPAC are giving out cards to women claiming they will get money once the Mamata Banerjee-led party comes to power here, and in the process were collecting personal details. “The TMC claims some three lakh women and over two lakh youth have enrolled for these schemes. It is not an awareness drive for their 2022 election campaign, but in fact a massive data collection drive in a dubious manner, which will be used for other purposes,” he alleged.

    Kamat said a complaint has been lodged with the CEC and promised the TMC and IPAC would not be allowed to carry on with this exercise.

  • Goa Congress attacks TMC, Prashant Kishor’s IPAC

    By PTI

    PANAJI: The Goa Congress on Monday questioned the silence of the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC on the BJP in the poll-bound coastal state and alleged that the latter’s agenda may be to help the ruling party.

    Assembly polls in Goa are likely to be held in February next year and the Trinamool Congress as well as the Aam Aadmi Party are planning to contest, which may queer the pitch for the Congress against the BJP.

    All India Congress Committee state desk in-charge Dinesh Gundu Rao also alleged that IPAC, a poll consultancy firm mentored by strategist Prashant Kishor, may be “betraying” Banerjee in Goa.

    “The agenda of the TMC is to help BJP. They want to weaken all other parties and are targeting the Congress. Why can’t they target the BJP? Who is giving them resources, where is the money coming from,” Rao questioned while talking to reporters in Quepem in South Goa.

    “The people running the IPAC may have a different agenda. They may be even betraying Banerjee. I do not know whether Banerjee knows all this or not,” Rao claimed.

  • On 2nd May, hold me to my last tweet: Prashant Kishor calls Bengal polls ‘key battle for democracy’

    By Agencies
    Election strategist Prashant Kishor took to Twitter on Saturday to call the West Bengal elections ‘a key battle for democracy.’

    His tweet comes a day after the Election Commission released the dates for the assembly polls in four states, including West Bengal, and a Union Territory.

    A confident Kishor, tweeted “One of the key battles FOR DEMOCRACY in India will be fought in West Bengal, and the people of Bengal are ready with their MESSAGE and determined to show the RIGHT CARD – #BanglaNijerMeyekeiChay (Bengal Only Wants its Own Daughter) PS: On 2nd May, hold me to my last tweet.”

    Prashant Kishor’s company, Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), is assisting Mamata Banerjee’s TMC in formulating a strategy to stop the BJP from coming to power in West Bengal.

    West Bengal elections will be held in eight phases between March 27 and April 29 for 294 constituencies. The counting of votes will take place on May 2, along with that of Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry.

    One of the key battles FOR DEMOCRACY in India will be fought in West Bengal, and the people of Bengal are ready with their MESSAGE and determined to show the RIGHT CARD – #BanglaNijerMeyekeiChay(Bengal Only Wants its Own Daughter)PS: On 2nd May, hold me to my last tweet. pic.twitter.com/vruk6jVP0X
    — Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) February 27, 2021

    The unprecedented eight-phase elections have evoked strong reactions including from Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. 

    “With all due respect to the Election Commission, I want to say that questions are being raised on why elections will be held in so many phases in Bengal while other states will be voting in one phase. If EC doesn’t provide justice to the people, where will the people go,” said Mamata Banerjee.

    BJP national secretary Kailash Vijayvarghia, however, welcomed the eight- phase elections in West Bengal and said that it was imperative to conduct fair polls.

    Kishor had also managed Narendra Modi’s campaign for prime ministership in 2014 general elections.

    (Inputs from ENS, PTI)