Prashant Kishor

Prashant Kishor

Prashant Kishor (born 1977)^[1] is an Indian political strategist and advisor to Chief Minister of Bihar on Policies and Program Implementation.^[2] He is a Public Health expert by training and had formerly worked with the United Nations for eight years. He came to wider public attention when Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), an election-campaign group he conceptualized, helped the Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) win an absolute majority in the 2014 Lok Sabha election. In 2015, Kishor and some members of CAG regrouped as and started the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) and started working for the 2015 Bihar assembly election. Working closely with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, a longtime rival of Modi, Kishor helped Kumar's "Grand Alliance" rout the BJP's alliance 178–58.^[3] On 19 November 2015, a few days after the Bihar victory, the Economic Times revealed that Kishor was in talk with the Indian National Congress, to run its campaign for the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly election in 2017.^[4]

2012 Gujarat Assembly Election campaign

Not much is known about Prashant Kishor and his early life except that he worked with the United Nations for eight years before joining Narendra Modi in 2011, then Chief Minister of Gujarat. Kishor worked directly out of Modi's official residence on a pro bono basis, and gained entry into the chief minister's inner circle. However he held no official position either in Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party or in the Gujarat government.^[5] Although this he was initially roped in as a policy advisor, Kishor quickly went on to work on Modi's victorious campaign for the 2012 Gujarat assembly election. "How this change in brief came to be, is history not entirely written yet" wrote Sankarshan Thakur in his 2015 article "Modi's ace versus Modi's ex-mace.^[1]

The earliest known profile of Kishor is from 2012 when journalist Harit Mehta called him the "Mystery Man [who] calls the shots" and wrote, "Prashant Kishore [sic] has emerged as a key shadowy figure in Team Modi… and is emerging as a key strategist and main pointsman for all election-related work. Extermely low profile, he made a quiet entry and soon started calling the shots from the CM’s residence. Even close Modi aides are directed first to him. Advises Modi on every election related issue. Few enjoy the kind of access he has to Modi these days".^[6]

CAG and the 2014 general-election campaign

For the 2014 general-election campaign, Kishor worked out of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's official residence.

As the May 2014 general election approached, Kishor conceptualized Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) in 2013, described as India's first political action committee. A spokesperson said of Kishor's role within CAG, "During the exploration of the idea, ... Kishor's opinions have been sought at important junctures ... he continues to engage with us on ideation and as a sounding board."^[5] A non-profit organisation, it drew in elite young professionals educated at institutions such as the IITs and IIMs, and working in multinational corporations such as JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and McKinsey. Most of CAG's 60 full-time members did not come from a political background. CAG positioned itself as an independent, policy advocacy group, and claimed to have no involvement with Modi, even though he spent upwards of eight hours at each of the two youth events organised by them in June and October 2013. At the time, CAG aimed to enrol 5,00,000 volunteers ahead to help Modi's campaign, which would give the BJP's prime-ministerial candidate "a potent youth force on the ground that is independent of the BJP and is functional, unlike the dysfunctional youth wings of mainstream political parties", according to the Economic Times.^[5]

CAG at its peak comprised 15 state chapters, more than a thousand full time members, and over one lakh volunteers. They were organized by Kishor across five domains: Data & Analytics, Media & External Communications, Research, Digital Communication, and Field Operations ^[7]

The group has been credited with conceptualizing and executing the most successful components of Modi campaign - Manthan brought together 7,000 students from India's leading colleges, following a nationwide contest for policy ideas that ran for three months, through which Modi himself sat for an upwards of 8 hours straight.^[8] The Statue of Unity movement – Modi’s pledge to build the world's tallest statue of Sardar Patel by collecting 700 tonnes of iron from five lakh villages which aimed to set half a dozen Guinness world records was driven by CAG.^[9] “CAG ran a research wing that produced talking points for Modi as he crisscrossed the country. It organized the Run for Unity, which now claims the world record for the largest number of people running and walking at the same time…

When Congress leader Mani Shankar Aiyer took a dig at Modi’s background selling tea at railway stations, the folks at CAG quickly conceptualized an event they called Chai pe Charcha (a conversation over tea), a video conference spread across 1,000 tea stalls, turning the critical remark into political capital. In Uttar Pradesh, the CAG implemented the Modi Aane Wala Hai (Modi’s arrival is imminent) campaign, in which some 400 video vans took Modi’s speeches to thousands of villages that are deemed to be part of a so-called dark zone, where mass-media penetration is poor. It also planned the schedule of the final thrust, the Bharat Vijay rallies, during which Modi spoke at three or four venues in a single day, and was projected by 3D holographic image to 100 locations simultaneously”.^[10] Young Leader’s Conclave, parallel Modi for PM fund, Modi’s digital and social media platforms – all were driven by CAG. Additionally the group took on the task of digitization of the entire electoral data and ran analytical algorithms on them for targeted campaigns. The group also sought to brand Modi as a vikas purush (man of progress), highlighting his achievements as Gujarat chief minister, to make him more palatable outside of his traditional hardline-Hindutva constituency

Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, author of 'Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times' said Kishor was one of the most important people in Modi's team driving strategies for months before 2014 elections. "The strategies by him and his group galvanised the middle class and upper middle class to vote for BJP. It was their efforts that sold Modi as a moderate leader focussed on development, a 'Vikas Purush', thereby shedding his image of an aggressive Hindu right wing leader." ^[11]

IPAC and the 2015 Bihar Assembly election campaign

¬In 2015, some of the erstwhile CAG members regrouped as I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) under Kishor’s mentorship and started working with Nitish Kumar, the two-time Chief Minister of Bihar who was seeking a third term in Assembly Elections 2015.

In his article Backroom Boy who changed the rules, journalist Sankarshan Thakur writes, “When Kishor arrived to formally join the Nitish establishment this summer, very little was in place other than Nitish Kumar who had resumed as chief minister. Conventional wisdom afloat across Bihar was that the Modi team would do an encore, sweep Bihar. There was no strategy, no resources, no alliance… That changed dramatically…” ^[12]

“The [I-PAC] team was structured to serve a dual purpose, in the central war room and in the field; in additional two-three team members were assigned to each district to work alongside 250 locally hired employees, or Central Resource Mobilisers (CRM). Based on door-to-door campaigning, a panchayat level, then block level, and finally district level list of prospective voters was created.” ^[13] “[Kishor] telescoped the focus on Nitish, and rallied his practised tools behind him - multiple platforms on Internet, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, print and telescreens; colonial raids on skylines to capture billboard space; an armada of LED-mounted trucks despatched to far corners statewide; a 500-strong army of researchers, data crunchers, copy writers and publicists hunkered at work 24/7 in prefab tenements.” ^[14] “About the only thing he did not do in this campaign was to board a chopper and go from dais to dais addressing public meetings. Every place else on the Mahagathbandhan's winner plot lies the footprint of Prashant Kishor, now surely accredited master of the election game. A doubly proven one-man political consultancy that few would now dare take lightly” ^[12]

Bihar Vikas Mission 2016

In January 2016, Bihar Cabinet “cleared the proposal for setting up a new body called the Bihar Vikas Mission to implement the five-year programmes of good governance and development in the state.”^[15]

"The Mission will be steered by Kishor - who crafted Nitish's electoral strategy - and will be turned into a parallel secretariat of technocrats and field experts. The Mission will draw upon some 1,500 policy and tech experts who will drive Nitish's development imperatives.”

“Kishor's task would be to devise a development blueprint in sync with Nitish's electoral promises. The Mission's immediate goal would be to work towards executing Nitish's saat nishchay or seven-point agenda - economic programming specifically geared for youth; job reservations and empowerment for women; electricity, drinking water and toilets to each home; laying pucca streets through habitations across the state; and expanding economic opportunity through education. Also, the Mission would work on a plan to attract substantive investment for industry and employment. In addition, the Mission would focus on time-bound implementation of the agriculture road map, human development mission, skill development etc, covered under the good governance programme 2016-20.

A separate unit, consisting of professionals and technical experts, would assess the implementation of projects and collect feedback from the people by visiting the ground. The unit would report to the governing body, which would use its input for fine-tuning policies and projects and would direct the implementing agencies to work accordingly. As reported by a government official, The Mission is by, of and for Prashant Kishor”

On January 26, 2016 Bihar Chief Minister in a series of tweets described Bihar Vikas Mission as a “leap of faith & a pathbreaking initiative to fast track development& ensure time bound delivery of services in mission mode”.^[16] BVM will work in sync with the existing govt machinery and will be a facilitator and force multiplier at all levels of service delivery. It will focus on helping govt machinery find solutions & technical knowhow, resources for execution & overcome procedural difficulties and provide a structured platform for young professionals and experts to join hands with govt in our endeavour to fast track development”

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