Is Prashant Kishor really a kingmaker?

So now Prashant Kishor has turned his attention back to Bihar. He is raging against Nitish Kumar, who he said "was like a father-figure" in the past. Why is this 'son' revolting against father now? In the first place, let us consider the "phenomenon" called Prashant Kishor.

Prashant Kishor considers himself extremely important for the nation and thinks his vendor skills are the ultimate and one could compete with him. His attitude problem is well known to everyone and the way he got distanced himself from Narendra Modi is part of folklore.

His rise in Gujarat came when Amit Shah was in a limbo. Once Shah made a comeback, Kishor was shown his place by the BJP despite the latter being the strategist of Modi's campaign.

He might have devised 'Chai pe Charcha' and executed Modi's hologram. But he went too far in claiming the patent for success. Modi's success is not attributable to a single factor.

Modi's image has got much to do with Modi himself and his semantics. People by 2014 were fed up with the Congress module and corruption charges and were looking for a different narrative. Modi filled in the blanks perfectly and rose to the current position.

Next when Pavan K Varma of the JD(U) roped in the services of Kishor for Nitish Kumar, for packaging purpose, the ingredients were all there including Nitish's clean image. Nitish Kumar perhaps was looking for hard selling himself and only needed to improve his brand image.

The first step in the direction came when he broke ranks with the BJP. Prashant is an intelligent man and he understood ahead of others that the Mahagathbandhan of Nitish and Lalu Prasad would click because of the potential of the caste matrix.

On its part, the BJP did everything wrong in Bihar in 2015, right from handling of the local leadership to allowing over confidence to take root. The launch of IPAC (Indian People's Action Committee) successfully covered up several loose ends. It went on to establish a bonding between the voters and Nitish with distribution of personal letters to voters signed by Nitish.

Just as Modi used his techniques for his success in 2014, Nitish also used the same and exploited Prashant. It is certainly not the other way. Next came the UP polls and he failed miserably is pulling the Congress out of the brink. There was no engineering brilliance involved in saying 'look, let us knit back Brahmins, Muslims and Dalits' together for a win. Mayawati had already done it in the past.

Leaders like Nitish and Lalu understand the strengths and weaknesses of both the Congress and the BJP very well and yet had opted for Prashant's services. Does Prashant really understand the politics in India?

Delhi had no complaint with AAP. As simple as that.

Hence, it was not any herculean task for Arvind Kejriwal to steer over with a thumping majority. If Prashant Kishor was not his adviser he could have lost a few seats more. That is all. Anyone who knows Delhi would know that.

Similar is the case in AP where Jagan Mohan Reddy hired the services of Prashant. The ground was right for YSRCP to come to power. The TDP was in a confused state and did everything wrong politically ahead of the 2019 elections.

Prashant took away the credit not due to him here too because of Jagan's insecurity feeling which was coupled with a firm resolve to not lose to the TDP again. It was a kind of a 'now or never situation' for Jagan. He, otherwise, did not really need Prashant Kishor.

When Prashant Kishor announces he would take on Nitish with 'Bihar ki Baat' he sounds odd. He is simply confident that he could spread the fear of CAA among a section of voters and capitalise on the same in the next elections.

His claim that those who swear by Mahatma Gandhi cannot go soft on Nathuram Godse sounds cliched. That Bihar has not progressed is also a platitude. If Bihar has not progressed why was he with Nitish till the other day?

Nitish knows that Modi still matters to the country and the agitations being waged against CAA, NRC or NPR are not of that magnitude to matter to the political parties. Nitish by now understands well that Assembly and Parliament elections are two different things and when the limelight is on the State, it is better to be safe by not touching Modi.

This is where Prashant Kishor sees his opportunity to establish himself as 'the player' in the country. His 'Bihar ki Baat' is nothing but an attempt to rouse the passions of the minorities and Dalits against CAA and thereby dent the JD(U) vote. He is banking on the students.

All this goes to show that Kishor has an ego of the size of a football ground and prefers to sustain his self-importance by first joining hands with leaders and later target them. This "I told you so" attitude will be his undoing sooner or later. He should evaluate himself properly and venture out.

In all his successes, Prashant Kishor only looked at the divisions in the society - caste, creed, religion, region, emotional disenchantments etc to exploit the same and strengthen them further.

He talks against the divisive politics and hate campaigns all the while practising the same. At best he is being solipsistic. That is all!