Battle for India will not be decided in any state elections, Prashant Kishor said. File
After the BJP's smashing 4/5 victory in state elections, poll strategist Prashant Kishor today slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi's comment on "2022 results giving a glimpse of the 2024 outcome", asserting that the "battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024", not in state elections.
"Battle for India will be fought and decided in 2024 and not in any state elections Saheb knows this! Hence this clever attempt to create frenzy around state results to establish a decisive psychological advantage over opposition. Don't fall or be part of this false narrative," Prashant Kishor tweeted this morning.
PM Modi had yesterday said the state election results, especially in Uttar Pradesh, "give a glimpse" of the outcome of the general elections of 2024.
"Many people had said that the fate of the 2019 general election was decided when the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election result was declared. All I can say is that the same thought applies now too... the 2024 general election result can be seen in the result of the 2022 UP election," the PM said at a victory gathering at the BJP headquarters in Delhi.
The BJP scored a record second term in UP and won in Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur defying predictions of a close fight with the Congress.
Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) swept Punjab, dislodging the Congress, which was decimated in all states.
UP, India's most populous state with 80 Lok Sabha seats, is considered the bellwether of the national election. BJP leaders yesterday said the party's win reinforced the statement that the winner of UP rules India.
Prashant Kishor soared to the spotlight in 2014, when he helped craft the BJP's spectacular national election campaign.
Over the years, Mr Kishor, or "PK", has emerged as more of an opposition player, working with leaders like Mamata Banerjee and MK Stalin.
With an inkling of yesterday's election results, Mr Kishor had, in a series of interviews, reiterated that 2022 will have no bearing on 2024 just like the Congress's sweep of Uttarakhand, Manipur and Goa, and Akhilesh Yadav's UP victory in 2012, had no impact on the outcome of the 2014 election when Narendra Modi came to power at the Centre.