Prashant Kishore may help Punjab Cong poll strategy

New Delhi, Jan 15: Prashant Kishore, the successful election strategist of Narendra Modi in 2014 Lok Sabha polls who later worked for Nitish Kumar in Bihar assembly elections, is likely to help Congress plot a comeback to power in Punjab assembly elections.

Sources said that Punjab unit of Congress is likely to seek his help in the run-up to the assembly elections in the state slated in early 2017.

Congress has been out of power for the last nine years, having been defeated twice at the hustings by ruling Akali-BJP combine. Sources said Punjab Congress chief Amarinder Singh may align with Kishore and will hand over the poll strategy to him soon.

Sources close to Amarinder said Congress is doing so to spruce up its poll strategy also factoring in AAP's presence in the state.

Sources add that Kishore has already met Amarinder and sent his team all over the state to make an assessment of the ground situation and carry out a survey ahead of formulating the party's strategy.

Amarinder is also working on strengthening its social media team, keeping in view the estimated 50 per cent youth in the state.

He will also start his interactions with youth in colleges and educational institutions in the state, the sources add.

The former Punjab chief minister had during the last Lok Sabha polls started interacting with students at Khalsa College in Amritsar to connect with the youth. He is likely to replicate the model in other parts of the state.

Congress is understood to be working on various strategies to strengthen like-minded and secular parties.

As part of strengthening the party, Congress today roped in Manpreet Singh Badal the estranged nephew of Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Meanwhile, Amarinder welcomed the merger of PPP with Congress claiming it will go a long way in redeeming and retrieving the political, social, economic and agricultural situation in Punjab. "When the mission is the same there was no reason why the paths should be different," he said.

"We have a common mission with a common goal and now we have opted for a common path together and I am confident that we will succeed in completing our mission and achieving our goal of restoring Punjab’s pride and confidence that has deeply been bruised and hurt by nine years of Akali-BJP misrule," he added.

PTI