Prashant Kishor’s Vijay prediction resurfaces after TVK poll surge

Prashant Kishor returned to the spotlight after Vijay’s TVK emerged as the single largest party in Tamil Nadu. Viral videos showed Kishor predicting strong prospects for Vijay and expressing confidence in the actor’s political future well before the Assembly election results

Patna: Jan Suraaj Party founder Prashant Kishor was in the limelight on Monday for having predicted “a very good chance” for Tamil superstar Vijay, whose fledgling TVK has emerged as the single largest party in Tamil Nadu.

The 48-year-old former poll strategist, who has been touring his home state to revive his less-than-two-year-old party, could not be reached for comments on the developments in the southern state, where he is rumoured to have helped the actor-turned-politician.

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However, video clips have gone viral on social media in which Kishor, who claims to have given up political consultancy in 2021, is seen making uncannily accurate forecasts about Vijay and the TVK.

In one of these videos, purportedly from a function hosted by the Tamil superstar, Kishor jokingly told people that he looked forward to beating cricketer Mahender Singh Dhoni, the former Chennai Super Kings skipper, and becoming “the most popular Bihari in Tamil Nadu” by helping their favourite movie star achieve power in the state.

Notably, Dhoni, whose roots are in Uttarakhand, considers Ranchi, the capital of Jharkhand, his home, having been born and brought up in the tribal state that was carved out of Bihar 26 years ago.

In another video clip, from an interview he gave to a Tamil news channel, Kishor predicted “a very good chance” of Vijay “winning” the southern state “if the AIADMK forms an alliance with the BJP and the DMK-led coalition retains its current form”.

The reporter, who appeared visibly stunned, pointed out to Kishor that Vijay was “still an untested entity” in politics and that it needed “118 seats” for any party to secure a majority in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

However, Kishor brushed aside the scepticism with the remark: “Hope is the biggest strategy, it is what drives our lives.”

The TVK, which contested the Assembly polls alone, is likely to finish with a tally of 110 seats in the Tamil Nadu Assembly, eight short of a full majority.

The ruling DMK is set to lose power, finishing a distant second with a tally of less than 60 seats, followed by the AIADMK, which is likely to win around 45 seats.

Alliances headed by neither the DMK nor the AIADMK, parties that have dominated the southern state’s politics for several decades, came close to the majority mark.