Prashant Kishor says he won’t work on any party’s 2019 campaign

India वोट Kar | September 10, 2018

Election strategist Prashant Kishor said on Sunday that he would stay away from every political party’s campaign in the 2019 general election. Speaking to students of the Indian School of Business (ISB), he said he had spent enough time with leaders and wanted to return to grassroots work, and added that he was not entering politics.

Why he is stepping back

Kishor said he had wanted to leave the field for about two years but first wished to ensure his organisation, I-PAC, was in safe hands. The 41-year-old said he planned to work at the grassroots in either Gujarat or Bihar. Earlier rumours that he would join the BJP had been denied by I-PAC.

He said he had not met Narendra Modi after leaving the Prime Minister’s Office in March 2015 until last year, when the Prime Minister called him while his mother was on her deathbed. They had been in touch since, but he ruled out drafting strategy for Modi or the BJP in the coming election. He said he had taken on work for YSR Congress chief Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy because of an earlier commitment. Kishor also said Modi, Nitish Kumar and Amarinder Singh had not hired him for money, and denied reports that he or his organisation had been paid huge sums.

A record of campaigns

Kishor’s political work began with the BJP’s 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, which ended with the BJP-led NDA winning power at the Centre. In 2015 he worked with Nitish Kumar and the Janata Dal (United), and the grand alliance of the JD(U), RJD and Congress won the Bihar Assembly election comfortably. His team also helped the Congress in the 2017 Punjab election, which Amarinder Singh’s party won. His work for the alliance of the Congress and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, however, ended in heavy defeat, with the BJP winning more than three-fourths of the seats. In Andhra Pradesh, I-PAC is now advising the YSR Congress.

What happened next

In the 2019 Andhra Pradesh Assembly election the YSR Congress Party won 151 seats against 23 for the Telugu Desam Party, and Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy became Chief Minister.

See also: YSR Congress Party and political leaders.

Originally published on 10 September 2018. Rewritten on 9 October 2026.