Is Prashant Kishor magic making the fiery Mamata calmer? : The Tribune India

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Is Prashant Kishor magic making the fiery Mamata calmer?

KOLKATA: West Bengal’s mercurial Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appears to be going through an image makeover—and it’s all down to election guru Prashant Kishor.

Is Prashant Kishor magic making the fiery Mamata calmer?

Mamata Banerjee (left) and Prashant Kishor. PTI file photos



Shubhadeep Choudhury 
Tribune News Service
Kolkata, August 19
 
West Bengal’s mercurial Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee appears to be going through an image makeover—and it’s all down to election guru Prashant Kishor.  
 
The most telling sign, says a senior journalist, is her recent restraint on making public statements about rival leaders.  
 
“It has been a while since she has called Modi, Amit Shah and Kailash Vijayvargya names. Even on the Kashmir issue, she has remained surprisingly quiet. She also tied rakhi in the hand of the new Governor even though he was appointed by Amit Shah,” a senior journalist, who didn't want to be named, pointed out.
 
Banerjee, the mercurial Chief Minister of West Bengal and the head of the Trinamool Congress, has hired political strategist Kishor to manage her campaign for 2021 assembly election. Kishor has to several election campaigns to his credit—the most memorable among them Bharatiya Janata Party’s 2014 campaign that saw sweep to power.  He was also the man behind YSR Congress’s successful campaign for 2019 assembly elections, which saw the party sweep into office.
 
Banerjee sprung a surprise on Monday when she went to a slum in Howrah unannounced to meet Hindi-speaking residents of the area. 
 
“Today I made a surprise visit to the slum areas of 2 No. Round Tank Lane in Howrah where Hindi-speaking people are staying. I interacted with them and came to know about their problems relating to sanitation, availability of drinking water, distribution of ration cards, improper drainage system and other issues,” Mamata later wrote in a Facebook post.
 
She gave directions to officials in Howrah to take immediate action to redress the problems, and even announced a task force with ministers, local MLAs and other public representatives and officials to solve the problems in a time-bound manner.
 
“This was a very different Mamata didi from the one who told a meeting in Kanchrapara in June that all those living in West Bengal must learn Bangla. We never thought a chief minister of West Bengal can speak in this fashion,” Bimal, a native of Patna who lives in Kolkata and makes a living by working as a freelance photographer, said.
 
Prashant Kishor, however, is careful not take all the credit for whatever pro-people step Mamata has been after he was hired to manage her campaign.
 
“To hold administrative meetings at block level is entirely Mamatadidi’s idea,” says the caption above a photo of one such meeting posted on “Amar Garbo Mama” (Mamata is our pride), a Facebook page created by the Prashant Kishor team for the publicity of the TMC chief.
 
However, the “Didike Bolo” (“tell didi”) programme is without any doubt is a brainchild of Kishor and his team. Under this programme a phone number, which people can call in case they need any help, is given wide publicity. 
 
The biggest change however is chief minister's noticeable restraint on her quick temper. The fiery chief minister is known for her unsparing attacks that even political stalwarts like the late Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief minister Jyoti Basu and former president Pranab Mukherjee could not escape. 
 
 “If only she also became averse to violence. (But) That is not happening, and we are losing too many of our colleagues in the hands of TMC goons,” Sayantan Basu, general secretary of BJP in the state, remarked. prisingly quiet. She also tied rakhi in the hand of the new Governor even though he was appointed by Amit Shah,” a senior journalist who was unwilling to be quoted pointed out.
 
Banerjee, the mercurial Chief Minister of West Bengal and the head of the Trinamool Congress, has hired political strategist Kishor to manage her campaign for 2021 assembly election. Kishor has to several election campaigns to his credit—the most memorable among them Bharatiya Janata Party’s 2014 campaign that saw sweep to power.  He was also the man behind YSR Congress’s successful campaign for 2019 assembly elections, which saw the party sweep into office.
 
Banerjee sprung a surprise on Monday when she went to a slum in Howrah unannounced to meet Hindi-speaking residents of the area. 
 
“Today I made a surprise visit to the slum areas of 2 No. Round Tank Lane in Howrah where Hindi-speaking people are staying. I interacted with them and came to know about their problems relating to sanitation, availability of drinking water, distribution of ration cards, improper drainage system and other issues,” Mamata later wrote in a Facebook post.
 
She gave directions to officials in Howrah to take immediate action to redress the problems, and even announced a task force with ministers, local MLAs and other public representatives and officials to solve the problems in a time-bound manner.
 
“This was a very different Mamata didi from the one who told a meeting in Kanchrapara in June that all those living in West Bengal must learn Bangla. We never thought a chief minister of West Bengal can speak in this fashion,” Bimal, a native of Patna who lives in Kolkata and makes a living by working as a freelance photographer, said.
 
Prashant Kishor, however, is careful not take all the credit for whatever pro-people step Mamata has been after he was hired to manage her campaign.
 
“To hold administrative meetings at block level is entirely Mamatadidi’s idea,” says the caption above a photo of one such meeting posted on “Amar Garbo Mama” (Mamata is our pride), a Facebook page created by the Prashant Kishor team for the publicity of the TMC chief.
 
However, the “Didike Bolo” (“tell didi”) programme is without any doubt is a brainchild of Kishor and his team. Under this programme a phone number, which people can call in case they need any help, is given wide publicity. 
 
The biggest change however is chief minister's noticeable restraint on her quick temper. The fiery chief minister is known for her unsparing attacks that even political stalwarts like the late Communist Party of India (Marxist) chief minister Jyoti Basu and former president Pranab Mukherjee could not escape. 
 
 “If only she also became averse to violence. (But) That is not happening, and we are losing too many of our colleagues in the hands of TMC goons,” Sayantan Basu, general secretary of BJP in the state, remarked. 

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