Prashant Kishor Again As Trinamool Jolts Congress In Meghalaya Exodus

Meghalaya is the latest state where the Trinamool, in expansion mode over the last couple of months, has made an inroad.

Mamata Banerjee's unprecedented coup in Meghalaya -- the joining of 12 of 17 Congress MLAs led by Mukul Sangma late last evening -- started with a meeting between election strategist Prashant Kishor and the senior Congress leader. At a press conference earlier today, Mr Sangma shared that he had met Mr Kishor in Kolkata as he was a "good friend... who can make a difference".

It all started after the Central leadership picked Vincent Pala as the chief of the party's state unit, Mr Sangma said.

"There has to be equilibrium in democracy. We need an effective opposition," Mr Sangma said. "We have raised this with the leadership in Delhi. We have made many trips to Delhi, but nothing happened... While looking for options for an opposition space, I ended up meeting my good friend Prashant Kishor-ji, whom we all know, who can make a difference. I'm very happy to disclose, when we interacted, we shared the same objective - interest of the people supersede everything," Mr Sangma said.

Mr Kishor -- who had crafted Mamata Banerjee's campaign for the April-May state elections that led to a stupendous victory - is now propelling her towards the national stage.