MUMBAI: Jan Suraaj party founder and prominent political strategist Prashant Kishor, who won the Bankipur bypoll in Bihar this week after defeating the BJP, called on the deputy chief minister Sunetra Pawar from the NCP and her MP son Parth Pawar, on Thursday. This is the second time Kishor is meeting them in three months, raising questions about whether they want him to become the party’s political advisor.The meeting has upset the BJP, the NCP’s alliance partner in the government, which says it is inappropriate for a constituent of the NDA to engage with an opponent of the BJP. The BJP was especially unhappy about the meeting taking place so soon after Kishor won the bypoll at the long-held BJP bastion Bankipur.“We cannot be fighting elections together on one hand while simultaneously engaging a strategist who has built his recent political identity around defeating the BJP,” said a BJP functionary.“One meeting may be dismissed as a courtesy call. Repeated closed-door discussions naturally raise questions,” the BJP functionary added.During the 2024 assembly polls, the NCP’s strategy was crafted by Design Box, but they later parted ways. This has raised questions about whether Kishor will become the party’s next political strategist.However, after their meeting in May, Parth Pawar had denied this on X, saying Kishor was a close family friend. “To the best of my knowledge, it has been a few years since he has quit the political advisory space. I don’t see that changing but I can assure all those who are interested that we are and will always be available to each other whenever needed,” he had said.
