YSR Congress party president Y S Jaganmohan Reddy has been completely depending on the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) team founded by Prashant Kishor for all the political strategy of the party, right from campaigning to promotion of his padayatra to selection of candidates, besides conducting periodical surveys on the party’s prospects.
Though Prashant Kishor has disassociated with the I-PAC now and joined the Janata Dal (U) as a full-fledged politician, the I-PAC is still working for Jagan.
Jagan might have been right in depending on a single source in working out the poll strategies, rather than on multiple sources that create a lot of confusion, but there has been a talk within the party that the I-PAC team has not been taking the ground realities into consideration.
Several ticket aspirants are worried over the negative feedback being given to Jagan about them.
However, a latest report in a national magazine has come out with some startling revelations about Prashant.
It exposes how Prashant conveniently manipulates the surveys to suit his needs, rather than projecting the ground realities.
According to this report, just four days after Prashant joined the JD (U), IPAC conducted a poll at its main office in Hyderabad to determine the political party with which its employees were keen on campaigning for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Almost all the parties had voted for the Congress party, but at least a couple of IPAC employees who took part in the voting revealed that IPAC management had manipulated the voting to select the BJP.
Though the IPAC management is yet to officially announce to the staff that the advocacy group would be campaigning with the BJP, the two employees said the result had been manipulated to align with the party.
“The way they conducted the poll was quite shabby,” the current employee said.
The voting process was done "to determine our partner (BJP or INC) for 2019 national campaign. On September 20, the staff was given three options: to campaign with the BJP, with the Congress or with either of them. IPAC comprises around 400–450 employees across several departments, including media, data, field teams, social media analytics and a political investigation unit. The counting of votes was carried out in the evening and results were declared at around 8 pm. And it was a shock to the staff, as the results were rigged to favour the BJP.
“It was a sham. It was a way for the company to convince its employees—who already knew in their hearts of hearts that they would be working for the BJP.” The employee’s primary complaint was not that IPAC would be working for the BJP, but the manner in which the organisation made the announcement.
“They could have done it better. They could have told the employees: ‘Listen guys, we are working for the BJP. You guys can be professional. This is what we got you here for.”
So, the I-PAC team is going to work for the BJP. But it clearly showed to what extent the PK team can go to suit its requirements.
Should this not be a wake-up call for Jagan?
