Prashant Kishore, the man whom all opposition leaders trust for handling their election strategy, has made dramatic announcements. He has said to a media house that he will quit as election strategist if BJP wins 100 seats in West Bengal. On the contrary Amit Shah, the union home minister has declared that BJP will win more than 200 seats. It is not just that the two personalities stand against each other politically but there is also a personal angle to it as Prashant Kishor who came to limelight after he was one of the people involved in the 2014 elections handling PM Modi’s Campaign.
As the Bengal elections heat up further, with charges and counter charges, thetarics, muscle and money power all coming to fore. The main logic given by Prashant Kishor is that to win Bengal BJP needs 45% of votes whereas it has gained around 40% in the past elections at best.
While Amit Shah who has made West Bengal his second home along with his lieutenant Kailash Vijayvargiya is gung ho after making many political rallies door to door house visits, taking PM Modi also speak as many rallies
The million dollar question that has grabbed the mind of citizens as well as observers and analysts will be therefore who has the final laugh in the Bengal challenge.
Prashant Kishor and Amit Shah, the two political strategists of present times, have different backgrounds. PK spent 8 yrs at UNIted nations and joined PM Modi when he was CM of Gujarat. He famously formed the citizen for Governance a non political outfit to serve politicians and elections. While PM Modi’s win in 2014 was on account of multiple factors nevertheless PK got his due share and won the tag of Election strategists. Since then he has been hired by Delhi, Bihar, Punjab , Tamilnadu and many other states and politicians to win elections.
On the contrary Amt Shah is a full grown booth karyakarta who has bloomed across the ranks and fighting off the political staircase, is as smart and intelligent as one can. In a way Amit Shah represents the quintessential Gujarati businessman who is not just calculative but also has a vision and a plan to execute things with elan and professionalism. While PK comes from Bihar, a state known for raw intelligence and sharp minds, in a way the fight between PK and Amit shah also represents the challenge between the genetic set up of these two states.
Amit Shah has meticulousness in his genes leaving no stone unturned to make a winning strategy. He goes the whole hog to make the impossible possible. There is no stopping him once he picks up a challenge. More importantly he does this all for himself and his party while PK is a cold blooded mercenary who can flip sides if given better booty. This is a very important difference that one has to note and which will make all the difference.
Amit Shah has a passion which is not seen in any of his contemporary politicians except for maybe his master and leader PM Modi. THis goes beyond politics. There is a zeal and inner urge to win elections but with a strong objective which is not just power. It comes from a nationalist urge and aspiration. The RSS training and imprint on both these men is unparallelled something the Sangh must be really proud of. It is here that PK starts losing because for him any election is just a business and it ends when the last ballot gets sealed up and he starts looking for another customer to buy his marketing skills.
While for Amit Shah it is just a time to relax for a night and get back to work with the same enthusiasm and determination to make sure that the saffron flag is seen across the nation.
To understand this one has to ponder why article 370 and Ram Mandir could not be achieved in the past so many decades . Why CAA could not be brought in when it was known that Hindus are maltreated in many of our neighbouring countries. And as a corollary one has to also think that why these all became possible when Modi and Amit Shah came as the top leaders for BJP. It is not that BJP didnt have any nationalst leader or the Sangh was not keen to bring these events but as they say every action is made for some personality to be credited with and therefore it was only that the personalities of Modi and Amit Shah was best suited for this kind of task. And this comes from an undiluted natioalist fervour besides the capability to take risk and sacrifice everything for the nation.
We leave it here and will come back once the election results are out or just a few days earlier to take another shot. Meanwhile it is not difficult to see who is lying in this war of words. For us the winner is clear and we can see it.
Dr Asheesh Shah
Samanvaya.
