Prashant Kishor Rubbishes Shah’s 200-Seat Claim, Says BJP Won’t Cross Double Digits

Kolkata: Election strategist Prashant Kishor rubbished Amit Shah’s 200-seat claim in the upcoming West Bengal assembly polls by saying that the saffron party will struggle to cross the double-digit mark.

“For all the hype amplified by a section of supportive media, in reality BJP will struggle to cross double digits in West Bengal. Please save this tweet and if BJP does any better, I must quit this space!” Kishore tweeted on Monday.

Kishor, who was BJP’s poll strategist during the 2014 Parliamentary election, has been roped in by Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to strengthen the party’s poll prospects.

In response to Kishor’s tweet, BJP’s Bengal observer and Indore MP Kailash Vijayvargiya tweeted that India would end up losing a poll strategist after the West Bengal elections, expected to be held around April-May 2021.

“Given the ongoing BJP tsunami in Bengal; once the new government is formed, the country will have to lose an election strategist,” Vijayvargiya wrote on Twitter.

Union Home minister Shah, during his two-day visit to West Bengal, repeatedly said that his party will storm to power for the first time in West Bengal with at least 200 seats in the 294-seat assembly.

The saffron party is riding high after Trinamool MLA and former state minister Suvendu Adhikari joined BJP on December 19 along with nine MLAs. According to BJP sources, at least 50 more MLAs will defect to the saffron camp from other parties in the days to come.