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| Ideology-agnost Prashant Kishor is open to working with parties across the spectrum |
The Congress party is reportedly in race with Mamata Banerjee's TMC to hire the services of celebrity poll strategist Prashant Kishor, who has just anchored a resounding victory to Grand Alliance in Bihar.
2016 will see five states going to elections and in a climate of heightened political rivalry, his services are in demand.
Sankarshan Thakur of The Telegraph reports that Prashant Kishor met with both Sonia and Rahul Gandhi after Bihar poll results came out. He has been meeting top Congress leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi.
The interactions which initially focused on Bihar campaign is now possibly broadening in scope to strike a relationship for the future.
The talks, as Telegraph notes, have been a closely guarded secret and would take sometime to resolve given the tough conditions Prashant Kishor places before he takes up any assignment.
He demands a complete free hand, unlimited access to top leaders and even physical proximity to them.
While campaigning for BJP in 2014, he worked out of Modi's official residence, a trick he repeated in Bihar, when he set up his office at the CM's bungalow in Patna.
His demands would unsettle many in the faction-driven and crony-led Congress party. Anticipating opposition, Prashant Kishor would not likely step in until he gets ironclad assurances that Congress means business.
For the floundering Congress party, which has struggled to hammer its strategy into shape, Prashant Kishor may be what the doctor has ordered.