Poll strategist Prashant Kishor meets Mamata
May work to fine-tune TMC's strategy for 2021 Bengal polls
Kolkata, Jun 6: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee here on Thursday, raising speculation about working with her in the near future to help her foil the BJP's growing influence in the state and maintain her grip on Bengal for the 2021 state polls.
Accompanied by TMC MP and the chief minister's nephew, Abhishek Banerjee, Kishor had a discussion with the CM at Nabanna, the state secretariat, for nearly two-and-a-half hours, sources said.
They said Kishor agreed to work with her if she so desired.
While leaving Nabanna, Banerjee did not speak to anybody from the media about her meeting with Kishor.
Attempts to reach out to the leaders of the Trinamool Congress (TMC), led by Banerjee, to know about the outcome of the meeting did not bear any fruit.
The TMC supremo left for Nimta in north Kolkata to meet the family members of a party leader who was killed late Tuesday evening. A BJP worker is among the two persons arrested by the police in connection with the incident.
Banerjee's meeting with Kishor took place at a time when the TMC supremo is facing a tough challenge from the BJP on her home turf.
The saffron party won 18 of the 42 Lok Sabha seats in Bengal in the recently-concluded general election, only four less than the TMC's 22.
Buoyed by the stupendous performance, BJP leaders are now claiming that their next target is to overthrow the TMC from power in the 2021 Bengal polls.
Kishor, who shot into the limelight after the BJP's spectacular victory in the 2014 general election, subsequently worked with several leaders of different political parties.
He joined Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) last year as its vice-president. But he continues to work as a poll strategist.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
We received request; will decide soon whether to support TVK: Thirumavalavan
Chennai (PTI): VCK leader Thol Thirumavalavan on Thursday said that his party received a request from TVK for support and the high-level committee of his party will decide whether to support the Vijay-led party to form the government.
The TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Assembly and emerged as the single largest party. Vijay will have to resign from one of the two constituencies he has won.
Though the Congress party, which has five MLAs, has extended support to TVK, the actor-politician-led party was still short of as many seats to touch the magic number of 118, the majority mark in the 234-member House.
"We received the request letter from TVK. We are thankful for that. We have not ignored his (Vijay's) request. We have a procedure. Therefore, our party's high-level committee will decide soon. We are going to discuss the merits and demerits of our position," the VCK leader told reporters here.
With regard to the delay in the governor's call to the TVK, which is the single largest party, to form the government, Thirumavalavan requested the governor to invite Vijay to form the government. "It is a constitutional right and people's verdict," he added.
Asserting that the governor cannot say that Vijay should hold 118 MLAs' support now itself to form the government, he said that after taking over power, Vijay has to prove an absolute majority only on the floor of the Assembly.
