Ahead of West Bengal Bypolls, Prashant Kishor Enrolls As Bhabanipur Voter

Ahead of crucial bypolls in West Bengal, Prashant Kishor has registered as a voter in Bhabanipur.

File Photo of Prashant Kishor.

(Photo: PTI)

Poll Strategist Prashant Kishor has registered himself as a voter in West Bengal's Bhabanipur Assembly constituency.

The decision came just ahead of the crucial bypolls, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will contest to enter the West Bengal Assembly. He was previously a voter in Bihar's Sasaram district, his native village.

He is widely credited for helping Trinamool Congress register a landslide victory in the last West Bengal Assembly elections.

"He made the shift in view of apprehensions that the BJP might attempt to coerce the Election Commission to get him out of Kolkata amid the Assembly elections," sources told NDTV.

Kishor has provided his "care of" address as that of Trinamool leader and CM Mamata Banerjee's nephew, Abhishek Banerjee. He stayed with him during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Saptarshi Chowdhury, media-in-charge of BJP's West Bengal unit, tweeted in Bengali, "Finally Prashant Kishor is a voter from Bhabhanipur. Does the daughter of Bengal now favours bahiragato (outsider) voters (sic)."

Kishor worked with the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Later, he joined JD(U) where he was the party's national president. He was expelled for his allegedly anti-party activities. He worked with the Congress in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.

It was reported in June that I-PAC has extended its contract with the Trinamool Congress to the year 2026.