For Amarinder, keeping Prashant Kishor away paid off

NEW DELHI: The victory in Punjab appears to have vindicated Congress’ chief ministerial candidate Amarinder Singh’s decision to keep political strategist Prashant Kishor at bay in the state, unlike in Uttar Pradesh where he got a free hand.

In UP, Kishor, popularly known as PK, dealt directly with Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka, who heeded his advice on organisation building, election campaign, candidate selection and even alliance with Samajwadi Party.

PK and his team of professionals are said to have rubbed several party seniors in UP the wrong way, engaged in public spats and even provoked departure of several leaders from the party.

Punjab was a story in contrast.

Amarinder Singh was openly disdainful of PK’s ways, especially his carefully-designed campaigns such as ‘Coffee with Captain’. Singh did not care to complete many of the programmes crafted by PK’s team to project Singh as the leader of the party. Singh picked and chose the campaigns.

A senior leader told ET on condition of anonymity during campaigning for the single-phase election held on February 4, “We were quite clear what we wanted from PK and his team. We wanted advice on our media campaign and social media interface. The rest was handled by Captain saab. He was the only leader.”

The Congress state in-charge in Punjab, Asha Kumari, had clearly told PK’s team only to advise on where to put up posters, campaign material and other creatives. The strategy in dealing with PK was clear – tap into his strong point of media messaging.