Prashant Kishor takes over AAP campaign strategy, Nagender Sharma exits

The Delhi government's media advisor Nagender Sharma, considered a confidant of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal as he had been with him since the beginning of his political career, has abruptly exited from the Aam Aadmi Party.

Sources have linked this development with the entry of Prashant Kishor in handling and designing the campaign for AAP in the recent Delhi election. Five days ago, Sharma, on Twitter, announced his tenure with Delhi government is over.

A former journalist, Sharma was at the forefront in managing the AAP's media outreach in the previous Delhi elections in 2013 and 2015. He helped formulate the party's stand on the top news stories of the day and briefed spokespersons so that no contradictory statements were issued.

A law graduate, he had been associated with top notch media organisations, including the Hindustan Times, the Press Trust of India, BBC etc. before joining AAP.

Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was often flanked by Sharma during major press conferences.

According to a source, the Delhi 2020 election political campaign rested with Kishor, who developed some innovative public outreach programmes, such as Kejriwal's seven-day schedule concentrating on one-on-one interaction with the local people in various parts of the city.

However, this was not welcomed by Sharma.

"Sharma believed that Kejriwal's image and the work done by the government was good enough to secure a landslide victory, and Kishor's involvement was not necessary," said a party source.

Three days ago, Sharma had sharply reacted on the AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj's announcement regarding the recitation of Ramayana's "Sunder Kand" every month in his constituency, terming it "disappointing".

In a tweet, he also said the AAP MLA was trying to "outdo the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)" in its game.

"Disappointed to see a competent legislator with progressive outlook fall into the fallacious trap of trying to outdo BJP in its game."

Sharma was not available for comments on this matter.