JDS may rope in poll strategist Prashant Kishor to craft strategy on party revival
Bengaluru, Jan 30: After facing setbacks in successive polls, the JD(S)leadership is planning to hold talks with poll strategist Prashant Kishor on plans to revive the party for the future, top party sources said on Thursday.
JD(S) leader and former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy is slated to hold talks with Kishor soon on organising the party for the days ahead.
"Kumaraswamy is at it...his strategy has worked out in Bihar and other places, so we can try here also," a top party leader told PTI, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Sources close to Kumaraswamy said the former chief minister has not yet held any discussions with Kishor, but they will meet very soon and the date is yet to be finalised.
"It is to discuss the strategy to build the party.
Kishor is also said to have expressed keenness to meet Kumaranna (Kumaraswamy), they will meet soon," he added.
Not wishing to divulge details, JD(S) state president H K Kumaraswamy merely said there was nothing wrong in taking such help in the interest of the party.
"We can take advice from such people to build and organise the party.
We have already began work towards organising the party from the grassroots level, and it will get a boost after the national level meet of the party on February 10 and 11," he added.
The JD(S) that bagged only 37 seats in the 2018 assembly polls and came to power in alliance with the Congress with H D Kumaraswamy as chief minister managed to win only one seat in the state during the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Party patriarch and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was also defeated in the parliamentary polls.
The party also failed to win even a single seat during the December 2019 bypolls to 15 assembly constituencies in the state.
The Kishor-led Indian Political Action Committee (I- PAC) is currently helping the AAP in the Delhi assembly polls.
The political advocacy group also helped in the electioneering campaign of Narendra Modi in 2014 when he was BJP's prime ministerial candidate.
The I-PAC has worked on a number of successful campaigns since 2014, including the one that brought JD(U) leader and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to power in 2015.
The organisation also helped Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy win both state and Lok Sabha elections.
Kishor, who was the Janata Dal (United) national vice-president, was on Wednesday expelled from the party following a bitter fallout with its chief Nitish Kumar.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
