Prashant Kishor appears at TMC meeting, leaves for Goa with Didi’s kin

KOLKATA: Seated beside Trinamool Congress West

Bengal

president

Subrata Bakshi

and party secretary general

Partha Chatterjee

, poll strategist

Prasant Kishor

made a rare appearance on Tuesday at Trinamool’s Nazrul Mancha meeting, where all functionaries and office-bearers were in attendance.

The sought-after strategist — one of the backroom boys during TMC’s 2021 Bengal assembly election campaign — was until now only part of closed-door party meetings, far away from public glare.

Kishor

later left for Goa with Trinamool national secretary Abhishek Banerjee and Derek O’Brien, who was made the party’s state vice-president and a member of its media cell.

At Tuesday’s meeting, CM Mamata Banerjee said: “Since there is no alternative in Delhi, you (BJP) are there. When we have an alternative, you will no longer be there. I am a practical person; we will strive to build that alternative.”

On Goa, where the poll contest is predicted to be the closest, she said: “In the past three months, we have worked hard to reach every home there. Had we started early, we could have done more.”

She also spoke on prospects in UP. “I will visit UP again, but for that we need to do well in Bengal (in 2024),” she said.

While Kishor has publicly denied any rift with TMC, several statements made by party members against I-PAC seemed to suggest otherwise.

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