India / Don't want to do it anymore: Prashant Kishor quits as poll strategist

New Delhi: Election strategist Prashant Kishor on Sunday said he does not want to remain in this field any more as he has done enough of it and now wants to pursue something else. His announcement during a live interview on NDTV came as social media was hailing him as the mastermind behind Trinamool Congress's performance in the West Bengal Assembly Election 2021. West Bengal was not the only project that Prashant's team was working on this time. He was the political strategist for DMK's MK Stalin, who too witnessed a big win.

"I have had enough. I have been doing this for 8-9 years. It's a tough job. I want to do something else in life. I don't have to do this all my life and I have been saying this in every conversation I am having with people," he said.

"Beyond this, there are very able people in I-PAC who run the show and I get credit for their work. It is now time for them to take over," Prashant said.

On joining politics, he said, "I am just saying that I don't want to do what I am doing right now. It is time for my colleagues in I-PAC to take over". On not ruling out politics, he said, "I am not ruling in or out anything."

He also said this "announcement" won't be a shocker for his colleagues at IPAC as they have spent enough time with him to know what he wants to do in life.

Soon after his announcement, an old tweet of Prashant went viral. In December 2020, he had said that if BJP performs any better in West Bengal than his prediction, then he will quit. And what was his prediction? BJP will struggle to cross double digits, the poll strategist had said.

In 2013, Prashant Kishor formed Citizens or Accountable Governance (CAG), as part of his campaign for Narendra Modi for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Before that, he worked as Modi's strategist in Gujarat in 2011. After Modi's win in 2014, Prashant Kishor worked as a strategist for the Congress, JD (U), AAP, Shiv Sena, Trinamool and DMK. And CAG became I-PAC, Indian Political Action Committee.

In 2018, Prashant Kumar joined JD(U) but had a fallout with Nitish Kumar over the Citizenship Amendment Act. In 2020, he was expelled from the party.