Poll campaigns now presidential, centred on the individual: Prashant Kishore
Prashant Kishore, India's most wanted political consultant and backroom manager tells TOI's Sagarika Ghose about his book plans
Prashant Kishore, India's most wanted political consultant, widely seen as the architect of the Nitish Kumar led mahagathbandhan's victory in Bihar is all set to write a book for the latest publishing house on the block, Juggernaut. In an exclusive interview with TOI, Kishore says he has agreed to write the book although he hasn't yet started and could take upto 9 months to finish it. Kishore, who was seen as the brains behind Narendra Modi's campaign in the 2014 general elections switched to Nitish Kumar last December but refuses to be drawn into a comparison between Modi and Nitish. "I intend to share my experiences over 3 election campaigns: Gujarat 2012, General Elections 2014 and Bihar 2015, but I am not choosing one over the other." Pushed to compare what it's like working with Modi and Nitish, Kishore was only willing to say that there are more similarities than differences between the two leaders.
Significantly, he believes Indian elections have become presidential in nature. "In my book I hope to explore the idea of the re-emergence of a presidential style campaign in Indian parliamentary democracy where individual and individual leadership matters, be it CM or PM." He also believes that its not accurate to say that Rahul does not pose a challenge to Modi. "The Congress did not have a counter to Modi in 2014 because they did not project a prime ministerial candidate. So Rahul has not really been judged or tested as a candidate. He went into the 2014 campaign as party vice president
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