Pratik Jain: Face of Trinamool’s backroom power, now under ED lens

Jain, who grew up in Ranchi, is an alumnus of IIT Bombay. (File)

Until a couple of days ago, Pratik Jain was known largely to those who inhabit the backrooms of Indian politics — consultants, leaders and a small circle of party organisers in West Bengal. But when officials of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) raided his Kolkata residence and the offices of the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) of which he is co-founder and director, Jain was abruptly pushed into the public eye.

What followed – Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee rushing to the I-PAC office, alleging that the ED had seized the Trinamool Congress’s internal documents – underlined that Jain was more than an election strategist.

“I rang up Pratik because he is in charge of my party’s work,” Banerjee told reporters.

The ED said in a statement on January 8 that the raids were linked to a money-laundering probe tied to an alleged coal smuggling case against Anup Majhi alias Lala, who allegedly illegally excavated coal from the Eastern Coalfield leasehold areas in West Bengal’s Paschim Bardhaman district. The ED further alleged that a hawala operator linked to the coal smuggling case diverted funds to “support I-PAC operations in Goa during 2021-22”. I-PAC had worked on the Trinamool Congress’s Goa campaign for the 2022 Assembly elections.

Jain’s family has filed a police complaint alleging that documents were taken away during the ED raid. The matter is now before the Calcutta High Court.

Jain, who started his professional career as an analyst with Deloitte, was among the early members of Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), the professional outfit that ran Narendra Modi’s 2014 Lok Sabha campaign that transformed Indian electioneering. When Prashant Kishor formed I-PAC, Jain became a co-founder but stayed away from the limelight.

When Kishor exited I-PAC in 2021, shortly after the Bengal Assembly elections, the firm passed fully into the hands of its three directors — Jain, Rishi Raj Singh and Vinesh Chandel. As I-PAC’s electoral ventures outside Bengal faltered — Tripura, Meghalaya and Goa among them — the firm retrenched. Senior manpower shifted to Kolkata. West Bengal became the only full-scale engagement. And Jain became the organisational fulcrum.

He now oversees campaign strategy, data systems, digital operations and the integration of I-PAC’s machinery with the Trinamool Congress’s organisation, from district-level field teams to leadership feedback loops. For all practical purposes, I-PAC in West Bengal functions year-round, not just during the elections.

A day after the raids, an I-PAC employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, “Everything seems pretty chill in IPAC. Pratik also came to the office today.”