Coming back to PK, the question now is what will be his role in West Bengal now? Will Mamata want him to spend his time in Bengal where the coming electoral battles are limited to municipal elections followed by panchayat elections and then in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. My guess is Mamata will like to make use of PK now in acting as a facilitator for bringing the opposition parties together with the aim of forming a solid front of anti-BJP parties to fight Narendra Modi in 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

If Mamata opts for this national role for PK that makes huge sense. PK has that expertise to make it happen. Let us go into the background of PK. This IIT alumnus with experience in working in big US consulting companies worked in 2014 for Narendra Modi and certainly helped him a lot in framing the winning strategy. Then in 2015 assembly elections in Bihar, PK worked with Nitish Kumar and helped him win the poll. Nitish liked PK so much that he made him JD(U) vice president which created resentment among the senior JD(U) leaders. However, Nitish soon fell out with PK and their relationship soured. PK left JD(U) and started criticizing Nitish Kumar.

Then in 2017, PK worked with Punjab Congress leader Amarinder Singh and helped him recording a big win in state assembly. But PK got a jolt in Uttar Pradesh the same year in assembly elections as he was also acting as a consultant to the SP leader Akhilesh Yadav. The BJP got a massive victory in assembly polls and the anti-BJP alliance of SP and the Congress just crashed. As of now, this was the only state where PK defaulted. But that very time, my sources in SP told me that the Congress in fact overruled many of the suggestions made by PK and thrust their own ideas on the electoral strategy. That way PK's hands were tied and he was not allowed to implement his programme.

In 2019, PK helped Jaganmohan Reddy of Andhra Pradesh in ensuring massive victory in the assembly elections. Even Jagan did not expect this scale of win. In 2021 assembly elections, PK worked for M K Stalin also in Tamil Nadu and helped DMK alliance to win. But he spent in 2021 campaign most of the time in Bengal as he had a personal battle to fight with the Home Minister Amit Shah. The great Chanakya of BJP did not allow another Chanakya to emerge. This new Chanakya PK was from the land of the ancient Chanakya Bihar. While at wider level, it was Narendra Modi versus Mamata in Bengal, at strategy level, it was Amit Shah versus PK. Amit Shah continuously claimed during campaign that the BJP would be getting more than 200 seats but PK was restrained, he only said in the fag end of the campaign that if the BJP can cross three digits, he will quit his profession.PK had not to leave. Instead of his maximum number 99 projected, BJP got 77. PK vindicated himself once again.

Now coming to the point. What role can PK do now in national politics? In 2022, state assembly elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Goa and Manipur in February March and in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh by end of 2022. UP elections are most important for 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Already Narendra Modi and Amit Shah are holding series of meetings with UP BJP leaders. Narendra Modi's brand image has nosedived in the recent months. He knows that his charisma will not work in next assembly elections in 2022 and if BJP loses UP, that will start the process that might overthrow him in 2024 Lok Sabha poll. BJP is conscious of that and all efforts are on to salvage the image of Adityanath government in UP. For Modi, the assembly battle in UP is his own battle for survival.

In Uttar Pradesh, right now, the Samajwadi Party led by Akhilesh Yadav is the major political party and if there is no alliance between the SP and Congress, the SP itself along with smaller allies can combat the challenge of the failing Yogi in assembly elections. Only eight months are left for the assembly elections. Akhilesh has to be helped by all anti-BJP opposition parties and Mamata can certainly loan PK to Akhilesh for these eight months. I know Akhilesh a bit. I interacted with him for a few months before the 2012 assembly elections. He is open to ideas and he is a staunch fighter against the BJP. Mamata has also a good equation with Akhilesh. She should take up the UP battle as her own battle.

If the combined efforts of the opposition, both in and outside Uttar Pradesh lead to the defeat of the BJP in the assembly polls in UP, it will have catalytic effect on the other assembly polls by 2022 end and also on polls in a large number of assemblies in 2023.The opposition victory in UP assembly is like battle half own for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. Modi knows it, so he is now spending hours on dealing with the problems of BJP and the state government in Uttar Pradesh.

So right now, the opposition parties, especially the Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee must focus attention on the coming state assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and take it as the battle of the entire anti-BJP forces of the country. Once this battle is decisively won, the national politics will take its own course. A deadly combination of Mamata and PK led non Congress-non BJP opposition, can work with the Congress led by Rahul Gandhi on the one hand and Left on the other at national level, to bring about the downfall of the ten year old saffron rule in 2024. The change is possible provided there is right strategy and vision. (IPA Service)