Showing posts with label priyanka gandhi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label priyanka gandhi. Show all posts

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Prashant Kishor



Prashant Kishor Asked To Join Party, Has Drawn Up 2024 Plan: Congress Prashant Kishor has given a detailed presentation for the 2024 elections to the Congress, sources have said ........ He has shown interest in joining the party and given a detailed presentation of the party's weaknesses and what needs to be done for improvement, such as the Congress would likely concentrate on 370 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections ...... Mr Kishor suggested Congress should fight alone in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, and it should form alliances in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra ..... A key hold-up, reportedly, is PK's desire for a Big Bang approach as opposed to the Gandhis' wish to bring in incremental changes, without antagonising party leaders too much by giving the ace strategist solo charge of revamping the Congress. ...... Despite Mr Kishor's sharp, public digs at the Congress, especially Rahul Gandhi, in the months after the breakdown, both sides have showed willingness for another shot at an understanding after the party's latest election defeats.

Prashant Kishor's Congress "Reincarnation" Plan: Exclusive Details While Prashant Kishor's Congress 2.0 plan has not been revealed, NDTV has accessed details of the plan he presented to the Gandhis last year. ....... the failure to capitalise on legacy and achievements, structural weaknesses and lack of connect with the masses. ..... For the "Reincarnation of the Congress", the leadership needs to rebuild the party and democratise it, said PK's plan. ...... It suggested Sonia Gandhi as Congress president with a "Non-Gandhi" Working President or Vice President, and Rahul Gandhi as Parliamentary Board chief. ...... sort out alliances, reclaim the party's founding tenets, creating an army of grassroots leaders and footsoldiers and creating an ecosystem of "supporting media and digital propagation"........ 'One Family, One Ticket', to counter prevalent nepotism. ........ Reconstituting organisational bodies via elections across all levels. ....... Fixed term, fixed tenures for all posts including Congress President and Congress Working Committee. ...... Identify and meaningfully engage 15,000 grassroots leaders and activate 1 crore foot soldiers across India. ........ A federation of 200+ like-minded influencers, activists and civil society members to: Coordinate Action, Raise Dissent and Build Synergy. ....... After the talks fell through, reportedly over disagreements on the way forward, the Congress enlisted the help of one of PK's top aides, Sunil Kanugolu. ..... The talks resumed after the Congress' election defeats in five key states in February-March, which threw the party's survival in doubt.

Prashant Kishor’s 5-point strategy to revive Congress fortunes Kishor said the Congress cannot be allowed to die. “The Indian National Congress cannot be allowed to die. It can only die with the nation,” he said .......... 1. The party needs to resolve its leadership crisis for once. 2. Alliances need to be decided fast. 3. The party must return to its previous ideals. 4. The Congress should mobilize its workers and leaders at the grassroots level. 5. The party needs a better and more effective communication system.

Prashant Kishor has a ‘4M’ plan for Congress to take on BJP in 2024. But it needs a Nadda If Congress dreams of beating BJP in the 2024 election, it needs to address its 'messenger' and 'machinery' issues. The Gandhis would need to adjust. ......... For several eternal optimists whose hearts skip a beat at the mere mention of the Congress’ resurrection, Easter Sunday came a little early. A day before, poll strategist Prashant Kishor was at 10, Janpath, presenting a blueprint for the party’s revival on the way to the 2024 Lok Sabha election. Sonia Gandhi decided to form a committee to study his proposition. ......... PK has been discussing his ideas with the Gandhis for two years and both sides agree on “90 per cent” issues. Their talks on the remaining 10 per cent broke down last September. If the Gandhis called him again on Saturday, their differences must be whittling down. ....... The Gandhis are desperate to get PK on board. The Congress is imploding. The trust deficit between them and their party colleagues is only widening. If nothing else, PK’s association with the Congress, in whatever capacity, could take the pressure off the Gandhis, they must hope. Those who don’t see any future in Congress may pause and re-think, given PK’s reputation as a poll strategist with a magical wand. .......

in search of a so-called secret document, we fail to read what’s available in public records.

..........

Prashant Kishor has a ‘4Ms’ formula — Message, Messenger, Machinery and Mechanics.

......... the opposition must first examine what’s working for the BJP. Essentially, three things, he says — Hindutva, hyper-nationalism and welfarism. ........ he is conscious of their limitations. ....... election data shows that only one out of two Hindus voted for the BJP ....... How can the Congress allow the BJP to appropriate an icon like Sardar Patel? How many Congressmen are actually fighting for Jawaharlal Nehru, beyond holding press conferences? Expect the opposition party to take a series of initiatives to reclaim the ‘nationalist’ space and its icons soon, that is, if PK gets associated with it. ....... Kishor has been articulate about the effectiveness of the JP Nadda model. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah virtually run the BJP. But they have Nadda as the party president. ......... “In the BJP, Modi and Shah run the organization but Nadda is the president. How does the BJP use it? It says that even a booth-level worker can become president. Whether they become or not, it sends out a message to the masses at large.” ........ PK has been vocal about his views that the jobs of the Prime Minister and a party president are different and they require different skill sets. So, one who runs the organisation shouldn’t be the PM candidate, whose main job is to strike a chord with the people, telling them their vision for them and winning the janata’s hearts. .......... If Rahul Gandhi returns, notwithstanding his proven competence, or the lack of it for the job, he shouldn’t be the PM face as per PK’s strategic vision. ........ Prashant Kishor is known to have plans to rebuild the Congress from the bottom up — forming committees from the booth, block and district levels. ......... PK often points out how the Congress blames its failures on its inability to communicate with the people. He is perplexed: How has Randeep Surjewala been heading the Congress’ communication department for over seven years?


Prashant Kishor's Blueprint For The Opposition The only campaign Kishor lost was an effort to get the Congress to win the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly election........ Kishor formed the Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), a poll advisory group that at the peak of Modi’s prime ministerial campaign had 1,200 employees work­ ing for it across 13 states. Kishor was credited for coming up with Modi’s memorable Chai Pe Charcha campaign. ......... In a recent tweet, you said “the idea and space the Congress represents is vital to a strong Opposition. But Congress leadership is not the divine right of an individual, especially when the party has lost more than 90 per cent of the elections in the last 10 years. Let the Opposition leadership be declared democratically”. ......... In the past 10 years, in the more than 50 elections, both state and general, it has lost almost 90 per cent, except the 2012 Karnataka state polls, the 2017 election in Punjab and the 2018 elections in Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. ...... Of the electorate in India, BJP has 40% as a denominator as it has a 35-37% vote share; another 20 per cent goes to other challengers. To challenge BJP, Congress must capture 40% of the 60% not voting BJP. It currently has 19% ....... When Sonia and Rahul Gandhi headed Congress, their strike rate was between 31 and 35%. But since 2019, when no one knows who the leader is, the strike rate has dwindled to 10% or less ....... The last time it won this country was in 1984 (when it won 404 seats). After 1984, the party has not won a single general election. ........ The Congress, at its peak, used to be No.1 or a close No.2 in about 3,500 assembly constituencies (there are 4,121 cur­ rently). Today, that number is down to 1,500­1,600. Their graph has been on the dec line, especially after 1984 ......... No one can invite themselves to the house of the Gandhis or the leadership of the Congress and say, okay, please hear my strategy. They asked me and I gave them what I thought was the right approach. They are within their rights to accept what I put on the table or reject it. ......... post the Bengal elec­tion, it was a much more structured, intensive engagement. I almost joined the party. ........ Whoever you choose should be a full-time president. ...... Apart from the leadership issue, it needs to have faster decision-making, empower local leaders, and not centralise all the decision-making and keep it in the hands of a few individuals in Delhi. ......... given the way the Congress works currently, the real power is centralised in the hands of general secretaries and what people call the party high command. That is the biggest stumbling block to any real revival of the Congress from the grassroots. ........ Merely coming together of many parties is not a sure recipe for success against the present BJP. For that, you have to get four levers right: a unifying face, a narrative, then the arithmetic, along with the machinery ....... No third party can challenge BJP in real terms at the national level unless it takes the space Congress represents today. This Left-of-Centre ideological space is very large in a country where over 60% of the population earns less than Rs 100 a day ........ It is an unnecessary exercise to try and find a leader. Could any one of us have forecast in 1972 that JP (Jayaprakash Narayan) would unite the opposition and become its face? Or imagined in 1986 that V.P. Singh would be PM? Or Narendra Modi become the BJP mascot, in 2010? If you have the right issues, and build a narrative around them, a face will emerge ......... If the leader is constantly failing, isn’t it logical to step away and let somebody else do the job? And that somebody could be from the Congress.



Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Indian Citizenship Bill Protests: The Distrust Is Wide And Deep

Has India's Narendra Modi gone too far with controversial new citizenship law? Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government has stripped the country's only Muslim-majority state of autonomy and rolled out a citizenship check in the northeastern state of Assam that effectively left nearly 2 million people stateless, many of them Muslims. ........ And when Modi backed the passage of a controversial new citizenship law, which prioritizes immigrants from three Muslim-majority countries of virtually every religious stripe over Islam, protests broke out across India. ........ To Modi's critics, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) -- which fast-tracks applications for immigrants, including Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who arrived in India before 2015 -- has become

the most brazen example of a Hindu nationalist agenda aimed at marginalizing Indian Muslims

. ...... Since the law passed through both houses of Parliament last week, demonstrations have swept university campuses in at least nine states. Protesters have taken to the streets across Assam and Tripura over fears that large numbers of Hindus, who migrated to the region in the past few decades, will now be able to get their citizenship fast-tracked. Many there fear it will dramatically recast the religious and ethnic makeup of the northeastern states -- home to 200 distinct indigenous groups. .......

critics are worried it might pave the way for nationwide citizenship tests, stripping the rights of Muslims who have lived in India for generations but cannot prove their family's lineage -- turning countless people stateless.

........ Home Minister Amit Shah has repeatedly said that the government will roll out a national citizenship registry. ...... Modi tried to reassure the public on Monday, saying on Twitter that the new law "does not affect any citizen of India of any religion." And that "no Indian has anything to worry" about....... But when a citizenship registry took place in Assam earlier this year it left 1.9 million people off a list of Indian citizens. The government said at the time that no one would be declared a foreigner if they are not on the list, but that failed to temper concerns........ What is at stake is "the future of liberal democracy in India," Vaishnav said. "And it looks like a side, which has been asleep or at least silent, has really woken up and made sure that their voices are being heard." ...... The protests are sure to have caught Modi -- who has developed a reputation for being a Teflon premier -- somewhat off guard. ..... As protests roiled the country over the weekend, the government shut down the internet in several affected states in a bid to maintain law and order........ in spite of mounting grievances, analysts think it is unlikely that the BJP will scrap the law. "Modi still remains, head and shoulders, the most popular politician in India" ......

India lacks a foreplan for what comes next. Its detention centers do not have the capacity needed to house "millions of people that could potentially be caught up," if a nationwide citizenship check is rolled out

...... there appears to be no existing talks with neighboring countries, like Bangladesh, on the issue of deportation ....... "Are you going to see large numbers of Muslims detained or lose their citizenship? It is a game of wait and see."




India is fundamentally a secular, diverse country. Modi spent years cultivating the image of a Vikash Purush ("Development Man") before he ran for Prime Minister in 2014. His famous slogan is, Sab Ka Saath Sab Ka Vikas ("Development For All").

India is the largest remittance economy in the world, and it draws sustenance from the Gulf countries only a few hours away. And, of course, India is the second largest Muslim country in the world by population. At some level, partition was never possible, and it never happened.

Modi came in promising double-digit growth rates, but his second term has been marked by one anti-Muslim step after another. It might be okay to turn Kashmir into just another Indian state, but turning Kashmir into an open-air prison is a no-no. Indians are so into free speech, they argue when they are out shopping for vegetables. They haggle over price.

Before the amended citizenship bill came along, already close to two million Muslims in Assam had been declared stateless. So the new bill is making people feel like that number will go from two million to 20 million. That will make Syria look like the Bahamas. Xi with his Xinjiang will have nothing on Modi. Assurances to the contrary are falling on deaf ears.

I think a fundamental political realignment is on its way. And Maharashtra shows the way. Recently the Shiv Sena ditched Modi's BJP, and the Shiv Sena has been the BJP's staunchest ally over the decades. The pendulum has started to swing in the other direction. At this rate the next election slated for 2024 might see the BJP emerge as the largest but a minority party, with the second-largest, the Congress, propping the leader of a smaller party for Prime Minister. That might as well be Mamata Banerjee. That could be Prashant Kishor. The kingmaker should become king.

Too much political organizing, too much efficiency, Amit Shah style, can also be a bad thing if it stifles debate. It can lead to democratic erosion. The famously chaotic Congress party might be in luck now.

The Vikash Purush is now being seen as the Social Vinash Purush, a destructive force. Dominoes will start to fall much before 2024. Maharashtra might be the first of many to come. This could be Modi's last term, and I don't see Amit Shah ever becoming Prime Minister.

Prashant Kishor should take his party, the JD(U), to at least six states. He has the option to become the Indian Macron.

India Citizenship Bill Debate (2)
India Citizenship Bill Debate
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NRC demonetisation of citizenship, says Prashant Kishor A day after he said Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is against a nationwide NRC, senior JD (U) leader Prashant Kishor on Sunday said the idea of a nationwide NRC is equivalent to “demonetisation of citizenship” which is “invalid” until proved. The state BJP responded by saying NRC was its “future agenda” and there was no need for alliance partner JD (U) to engage in any propaganda over it. ........... The JD(U) leader, who had criticised his party for supporting the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Parliament, met Nitish on Sunday to sort out differences and came out with the party’s new stand — “NRC with CAB is dangerous and discriminatory”.

Sharad Pawar: Country needs alternative to BJP that stays in India Responding to a query of reporters in Nagpur on whether an anti-BJP coalition was in the making at the national level, the NCP president said, "There are some indications that anti-BJP sentiments are on the rise in some parts of the country." ...... Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said he had met South Korea Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon during a visit to the country. His visit to South Korea came amid widespread protests over the amended citizenship law in various parts of India. ....... “It was expected that the unrest would remain confined to certain states.” ........ He said that contrary to the BJP’s expectation that the new law would be welcomed in certain states, it was being opposed in the party-ruled Assam too.

Jamia unrest: Priyanka, Prashant Kishor attack Centre
Citizenship Amendment Act dangerous if it goes along with NRC: Prashant Kishor
Arvind Kejriwal ropes in Prashant Kishor for Delhi Assembly elections

Nitish Kumar says no to Prashant Kishor's offer to resign Prashant Kishor has differences with Nitish Kumar supporting CAA. JD(U) Vice-President Prashant Kishore had also expressed his displeasure through a tweet and appealed to Nitish Kumar to not support the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Rajya Sabha. But the JD(U) supported the Bill in both Houses of Parliament....... On Wednesday, Kishor had tweeted the legislation could turn into a lethal combo (with NRC) to systematically discriminate and even prosecute people based on religion.

Back With a Bang? Crafted by Prashant Kishor, How a Single Strategy Helped Mamata Regain Ground Ahead of Bypoll Test Since Kishor launched 'Didi Ke Bolo' on July 29, the TMC has not only managed to recapture several municipalities that had shifted to the BJP but also win the confidence of strong ground-level leaders to rejoin the party........ the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made massive gains in West Bengal, winning 18 of the state's 42 Lok Sabha seats, up from just two in 2014. After that, her party lost seven municipalities to the BJP, as a majority of them switched over to the saffron outfit....... While the TMC was on the back foot, Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister, had secretly picked political strategist Prashant Kishor on June 6 to get the party on track ....... After 54 days of Kishor's appointment, the outreach programme Didi Ke Bolo (Tell Didi) was launched on July 29, and in a span of nearly 180 days the TMC has not only managed to recapture all the seven municipalities which went to the BJP (due to a switchover) but also win the confidence of strong ground level leaders to rejoin the TMC........ His first major campaign was in 2011 when he secured the victory of Narendra Modi in Gujarat for a third term as chief minister. The 42-year-old trained in public health and worked with the United Nations for several years before entering the Indian political scene.......... He came under the spotlight when he helped Modi and the BJP win the 2014 general elections with innovative canvassing techniques: the chai pe charcha (talks over tea) campaign, 3D rallies, conclaves and social media programmes. Since then, Kishor has aided in electing to power JD(U)'s Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Congress's Amarinder Singh in Punjab and the YSRCP's YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh. ........ As per the TMC’s internal assessment, more than 2,000 strong leaders – who actually have the capability to turn the tables – have come back to the Trinamool in the last six months. Most of them are booth leaders, having a great connect at the grassroots level.......... On November 7, Mamata Banerjee personally assessed the impact of Prashant Kishor’s ‘Didi Ke Bolo’ campaign in Bengal. The review meeting was held at Trinamool Bhawan in North Panchanna Gram where all the party leaders including MLAs, MPs and district presidents were asked to be present. The campaign provides a platform to the people to directly lodge complaints with the chief minister. Anyone can reach out to her by calling ‘9137091370’ or by logging onto www.didikebolbo.com, with their suggestions and problems....... more than 30 lakh people have made calls, expressing their suggestions and grievances. Banerjee was impressed with the impact on the ground level...... More than 250 party workers are engaged round the clock not only to ensure each and every grievance/suggestion reaches the chief minister but also list them in various trackers and buckets for swift resolution. As suggested by Kishor, there are separate buckets for all the government schemes for people and multiple trackers for each to keep an eye on how many issues have been resolved and the time taken.



2024: Possible Lok Sabha Composition

BJP: 150

Anti-BJP Coalition (ABC):
Congress: 60
JD (U): 50 (25 in Bihar, 25 outside Bihar)
Trianmool Congress: 40
Shiv Sena: 20
LJP (Paswan): 6
RJD: 10
AIADMK: 20
DMK: 15
YSR Congress: 20
BJD: 20
BSP: 30
SP: 30
NCP: 10
CPI (M): 10
TRS: 10
TDP: 5
AAP: 4
Total: 360
Others: 33