JD-United infighting leads to trust deficit in DMK on Kishor’s I-PAC

Though the poll strategist, whose I-PAC (Indian Political Action Committee) has been reportedly engaged by the DMK for the 2021 Assembly polls, has hit back at his former political boss Nitish Kumar of misrepresenting facts about his induction into the JD (U), some doubts have started occurring in the minds of DMK insiders about the loyalty quotient of the strategist cum politician.

They have already started wondering if the BJP top brass was engaging the strategist to snoop on rival parties. “Nitish does not bluff around. When he makes a statement, it carries a weightage. He does not make statements carelessly. What if it were true? We have reasons to be apprehensive,” argued a party insider who did not wish to be named. The public exchange between the JD (U) leaders have raised more doubts in the minds of skeptics in the party who were concerned about the integrity of strategists who work for rival parties simultaneously.

That the secret behind Kishor’s entry into JD(U) has come behind his I-PAC reportedly holding talks with Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiam, Edappadi K Palaniswami’s AIADMK and to an extent even with Rajinikanth has reduced the confidence quotient of the old guard who were only used the conventional politicking and electioneering.

Curiously, the doubts have only arisen at the middle level and the high command was understood to be convinced about the integrity and professionalism of the strategist. The confidence of the high command might have stemmed from the fact that the strategist had also ‘helped’ BJP’s rivals like Congress in Punjab, Shiv Sena in Maharastra (Sena was in alliance with BJP then) and Jagamohan Reddy’s YSRCP in Andhra. Unsurprisingly, these were the fears that initially made the DMK top brass think twice before eventually blinking.

The DMK decision makers should owe it to the YSRCP friends who had vouched for the professional integrity of the team of strategists who had put a relatively young Jagan in power in short time since breaking ranks with the Congress and floating a party of his own.