How I-PAC is trying to rebuild after setbacks in Bengal, Tamil Nadu

“After the electoral setback and ED action in Bengal, we have to lie low and regroup,” says a senior member who is part of a team working in Bagalkot.

After a series of setbacks, including the recent electoral reverses in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu and the collapse of its proposed Uttar Pradesh assignment with the Samajwadi Party (SP), members of political consultancy firm I-PAC have floated smaller firms, seeking to rebuild through this route and keeping themselves distant from the brand name.

At least three smaller companies have been set up – Parlin Research and Insights, VoteBridge and The Mandate Labs – all having links to I-PAC.

In Karnataka, a roughly 20-member team is believed to be working on a small project in Bagalkot for senior Congress leader S R Patil through Parlin Research and Insights, a firm registered in July this year. The firm is being steered by a senior I-PAC hand, according to sources.

“After the electoral setback and Enforcement Directorate (ED) action in Bengal, we have to lie low and regroup. It is a matter of survival now. We are working though the I-PAC brand is not being used,” a senior member of the team in Bagalkot told The Indian Express, hoping that projects in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh will open up for I-PAC after the Uttar Pradesh elections in February next year.

With polls in Karnataka scheduled only in 2028, the team feels it has enough time to re-establish itself.

A source said I-PAC had worked with Patil earlier in 2021. While he worked with another firm in 2022-2023, I-PAC reconnected with him in 2025, said a source, who was a part of the meetings with Patil.

The promise made to Patil is to project him as “the tallest Congress leader of North Karnataka”, said sources. A Karnataka minister in the first Siddaramaiah-led Congress Cabinet, Patil has served as the leader of the Legislative Council. Though there was a buzz that he would re-enter the Council, he missed out in the recent MLC polls.

Repeated attempts to contact I-PAC director Rishi Raj Singh went unanswered.

Asked about the issue, Patil refused to comment.

Like Karnataka, elections in Maharashtra too are some distance away. Here, members of I-PAC are working under the aegis of VoteBridge, a firm founded by Vasudha Singh, the wife of I-PAC director Vinesh Chandel, and they are said to have advised the besieged NCP.

Sources said that around 20 members were helping put into order the organisation of the party, which remains in turmoil after the death of its supremo Ajit Pawar in a plane crash in January this year.

A former I-PAC employee said the intervention of Prashant Kishor helped get them the NCP deal. The co-founder of I-PAC who has publicly distanced himself from the political consultancy firm he helped shape and succeed, Kishor is now an MLA from Bankipur in Bihar, having set up the Jan Suraaj party.

The ex-I-PAC staffer said: “The Naresh Arora-led DesignBox was offering consultancy services to the NCP from before the 2024 polls. But after the death of Ajit Pawar, Kishor held meetings with members of the Pawar family, where he convinced them that putting the party in order was of prior importance. He offered to send a team of 20-odd ‘experts’ for the task.”

Another source said that the party was now dealing with The Mandate Labs, steered by I-PAC director Pratik Jain.

In May, Kishor had met Sunetra and Parth Pawar, Ajit Pawar’s wife and son, in Mumbai. At the time, Parth described it as a “courtesy interaction” and said there was no formal arrangement for Kishor to work with the NCP. Asked about it, Kishor told The Indian Express that he had quit the political advisory space in 2021.

In August, the three met again, with Kishor reportedly suggesting an organisational overhaul, and discussing the NCP’s Maharashtra state leadership.

While Sunetra has taken over as the NCP national president in place of Ajit, there is tension within the party, especially over the role of senior leaders such as Praful Patel and Sunil Tatkare.

“With no elections in the state for the next three years, the focus is fully on resolving organisational issues,” a member of the Mumbai-based team said. “But we have an eye out for zilla parishad polls, which may be held soon.”

While an NCP leader close to Parth Pawar did not directly confirm the development, he said: “Kishor is busy now as he himself is an MLA. People from I-PAC have split into many small companies. We avail of their services as and when required.”

Founded in 2015, I-PAC had gone on to work with a range of parties, including the BJP (2014), JD(U) in Bihar (2015), YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) in Andhra Pradesh (2019 and 2024), Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi (2020 and 2025), DMK in Tamil Nadu (2021 and 2026), and the Trinamool Congress (2021 and 2026).

The firm is now headed by directors Rishi Raj Singh, Vinesh Chandel and Pratik Jain, with six others in the leadership team, followed by “associates”.

The firm’s graph has been on the decline since 2022, when its client TMC faced a rout in the Goa Assembly polls, followed by the YSRCP’s defeat in the Assembly and Lok Sabha polls in Andhra Pradesh in 2024.

In January this year, the ED conducted searches on premises associated with I-PAC in Kolkata and Delhi as part of an alleged money-laundering probe linked to a coal-smuggling case in West Bengal. Chandel was arrested in connection with the case and is currently on bail.

The TMC’s subsequent loss in the 2026 Bengal elections came as the last straw, said sources.

As per sources, after this, I-PAC’s proposed assignment with the SP for the 2027 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections fell by the wayside, both because of the string of losses suffered by its clients and the legal scrutiny surrounding the consultancy.

Officially, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav attributed the move to “lack of funds”.

While the number of I-PAC “associates” has consistently fallen, from over 800 to under 100, many others were asked to leave after the SP pulled the plug on the deal with it.