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Uttarakhand Congress Turns To Prashant Kishor For Last-Minute Leg-Up In State Elections

Wild card.
Prashant Kishor, political strategist of India's main opposition Congress party, is pictured at a hotel in New Delhi, India May 15, 2016.
Anindito Mukherjee / Reuters
Prashant Kishor, political strategist of India's main opposition Congress party, is pictured at a hotel in New Delhi, India May 15, 2016.

The Uttarakhand Congress has reportedly roped in poll strategist Prashant Kishor in the run-up to the state elections for a last-minute boost to their campaign. Kishor has been brought in at a time when incumbent chief minister Harish Rawat is under CBI lens for allegedly paying bribes to rebel Congress MLAs.

The mastermind behind the BJP's historic win in the 2014 national elections, as well as Nitish Kumar's Bihar victory, was reportedly hired last week on 30 December. "Kishor had met Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat a day before and everything happened so quickly that it came as a surprise both to the state Congress leaders and I-PAC team members," an unnamed source told Firstpost.

In fact, The Hindu reported that Kishor is behind the Congress slogan: "Baaki sab sapne hain, Harish Rawat apne hain" ("The rest is a dream, Harish Rawat is ours"). According to the report, Kishor himself had offered his services to the state Congress.

The Uttarakhand elections are expected to take place on 15 February.

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This article exists as part of the online archive for HuffPost India, which closed in 2020. Some features are no longer enabled. If you have questions or concerns about this article, please contact indiasupport@huffpost.com.