Opposition parties and leaders of all hues cosying up to election strategist Prashant Kishor reflects the growing sense among all non-BJP parties that the saffron party cannot be defeated in elections on programmatic or ideological lines.
Whether current speculation over his joining the Congress turn out to be correct or not, Kishor’s engagement with Indian electoral politics is undeniably going to become further explicit.
I use the term ‘electoral politics’, because with Kishor around, one has to distinguish between governance and realpolitik. While the former is grounded in ideology, or at least policies and programmes – either of the party in government or its rivals – the latter is driven solely by the pursuit of power and desire to win elections.
This December will mark a decade of Kishor’s presence in the Indian political and electoral theatre. For non-Left parties currently adversarial to the BJP, the occasion provides an opportunity to take stock of whether principles matter lesser now than
— source newsclick.in | Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay | 02 Aug 2021