BJP claims Prashant Kishor included as Bhabanipur voter, wonders if he is an outsider

KOLKATA: In a jibe at the ruling TMC, the BJP on Saturday said Prashant Kishor, who was the poll adviser of the Mamata Banerjee-led party in the recent West Bengal elections, can be called a "bohiragato" (outsider) being enrolled as a voter in the Bhabanipur constituency where by-election will be held on September 30.

Banerjee is contesting the by-poll from the Bhabanipur seat to retain her chief minister's chair, and is up against BJP's Priyanka Tibrewal.

Long before the by-election was announced, a person with the name Prashant Kishor was included in the list of the electorate in Bhabanipur during the addition process in January-April, according to the Election Commission website.

Claiming that PK (poll strategist Prashant Kishor) is in the list, who is the founder of I-PAC, BJP media cell in-charge Saptarshi Choudhury tweeted in Bengali, "At last Prashant Kishor becomes the voter of Bhabanipur. So, we are not sure if the daughter of Bengal is now in favour of a bahiragato (outsider) voter."

The tweet, tagging the official accounts of chief minister Mamata Banerjee, the TMC and TMC spokesman Kunal Ghosh, referred to the “bahiragato” tag attached by Trinamool to BJP leaders coming from outside West Bengal to campaign for the recent assembly polls.

TMC leaders like Firhad Hakim has similarly labelled BJP leaders from outside West Bengal campaigning in Bhabanipur by-election.

Kishor, credited with the spectacular victory of the TMC against a high voltage assembly poll campaign by BJP, had announced he will be taking a break from strategising work.

He was not seen publicly in TMC's campaign for Bhabanipur since the announcement in poll dates, but sources said he had held meetings with TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee recently in Delhi.

Kishor's I-PAC team members had also visited Tripura, which the TMC is eyeing in the 2023 polls, but were allegedly confined in a hotel by the BJP government in the state for three days under Disaster Management Act.

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