The Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar and the Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh, who are a part of the INDI Alliance, are likely to engage political consultancy firm, Showtime Consultancy, for the upcoming Assembly elections in their respective states. The talks, party sources in both the parties, are in the final stages. The said organization is right now helping the Telugu Desam Party in Andhra Pradesh. However, the contract between the two is until May end only.
If the talks between RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Showtime Consultancy materializes, this will not be the first time in the RJD’s history that it will be taking help from a professional.
In the 2015 Assembly elections, it had engaged Prashant Kishor and his political consultancy Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). Now Kishor and I-PAC have parted ways. The elections in the state are scheduled for October 2025 but may occur earlier than that given the political situation in the state.
Akhilesh Yadav too, has in the past, worked with these political consultants without much success. The party has lost two consecutive state elections, 2017 and 2022, and is exploring ways to make a comeback in the 2027 polls.
Sources said that the RJD leaders had reportedly approached Kishor seeking his assistance, however, Kishor, while expressing his inability in wake of his own political ambitions and commitments, directed them to Showtime Consultancy.
Industry insiders claimed that Kishor, after differences cropped up between him and the top leadership of I-PAC, has now decided to promote Showtime Consultancy rather than his former abode, I-PAC. Showtime Consultancy, brought into existence by former employees of I-PAC, is one of the multiple political consultancies active in the still nascent political consultancy market that has other entities like Association of Billion Minds (ABM) and Varahe Analytics which is reportedly the brainchild of a top South based national level BJP leader. Both ABM and Varahe are assisting the BJP poll managers.
Another consultancy that has been working on the ground is Mindshare Analytics, which is managed by Sunil Kanugolu. The said consultancy, as of now, exclusively works for the Congress party and is right now assisting the party in Haryana for the upcoming assembly elections scheduled for October.