Who is Pratik Jain, the I-PAC director at the centre of ED-TMC political standoff?

Talk about travelling from one end of the political spectrum to the other!

A 2014 photo on Facebook shows a young Pratik Jain smiling next to a victorious Narendra Modi on the day the BJP won a landslide win in the Lok Sabha elections, and captioned, "Picture of the year". A decade later, the same man is on the diametrically opposite side now, politically. Today, Pratik Jain is the co-founder and director of I-PAC and the main strategist for the Trinamool Congress, personally named by Mamata Banerjee as her party’s head of IT and strategy.

Now, Jain is at the centre of a political standoff between the TMC and the Enforcement Directorate, after the central agency, on Thursday, raided the I-PAC office and Jain’s residence in Kolkata. The situation escalated with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee unexpectedly storming into the sites during raids, alleging that the central agency was trying to seize the TMC's sensitive data ahead of the high-stakes state assembly polls. Both the TMC and the ED have moved court now over the developments.

Banerjee also announced a protest rally on Friday against the raids.

Pratik Jain’s quiet rise

Jain moved from one side of the political divide to the other while using the same quiet, effective methods, and – patience. Those who have worked with him say he uses it as a tool to manage crises, wait for public anger to fade, and let competing stories lose their power.

This approach was developed long before he entered West Bengal politics. In 2013, Jain was part of Prashant Kishor’s core team that helped shape Modi's prime ministerial campaign. He was known for more than just numbers; he understood how leaders appeared on camera and how public emotions worked. He has always been a quiet operator, rarely speaking to the media about his work.

After graduating from IIT Bombay with an engineering degree, Jain worked as a data analyst. His journey into politics began in 2013 with a data-focused group that would eventually become the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC). While Kishor was the public face, Jain was the operational head – the brain behind the scenes.

Over the last six years, Jain has become a vital part of the TMC. He was the mastermind behind the party's winning campaign in the 2021 assembly elections and continued to guide its strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls. When Kishor left I-PAC to pursue his own political goals, Jain took over.

His role now extends beyond elections to advising on government messaging, setting priorities for public schemes, and even helping select candidates. This closeness to power has made him a target for the opposition. Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari often criticises I-PAC and Jain, accusing them of running a "shadow system".

Despite his key role, Jain stays out of the limelight and prefers to let his colleagues take the credit. A recent LinkedIn post offers a glimpse into his thinking. He wrote about the danger of always trying to be productive, saying that rest is a reminder "that you're human, not a machine".

Today, as another major election approaches in West Bengal, the man who helped the BJP win is now using his signature patience at the heart of Banerjee's team.