Election Strategist Prashant Kishor
Highlight
- Congress and Prashant Kishor parted ways after talks
- Sources said PK’s goalpost change at the last minute on the last day was the reason for the failure of the talks.
- Kishor said the Congress needs leadership and collective will to fix its deep-rooted structural problems.
The Congress and Prashant Kishor parted ways after several talks, but although the real reason for their ‘divorce’ has not been revealed by the party, highly placed sources said the reason was the political strategist “changing the goalpost for the last time”. Minutes of the last day”.
Sources said that initially, PK, fondly known as Kishor, met Rahul Gandhi through party leaders Jairam Ramesh and KC Venugopal after party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi gave him the cold shoulder.
Later, Rahul Gandhi linked her to party chief Sonia Gandhi, who formed a committee to look into her suggestions. Initially, PK wanted to manage the Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh elections and in turn had a Bihar Congress president for them.
Sonia Gandhi and party leaders agreed to his condition, and also that he be part of the team to manage the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
PK then insisted on a presentation to which some party leaders agreed while some disagreed, but all were of the view that PK should be onboard.
However, sources say that when the Congress pitched the idea of an Empowered Action Group, PK backtracked and demanded that he be given the position of team leader reporting directly to the party president. This was refused by the Congress and an amicable parting solution was worked out.
The Congress on Tuesday officially announced that election strategists would not work for the party as they refused to be part of the Empowered Action Group for the 2024 general elections.
The announcement came a day after Sonia Gandhi announced the formation of the group.
Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet: “After a presentation and discussion with Prashant Kishor, the Congress President has constituted an Empowered Working Group 2024 and has been included in the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. Invited to be there. He declined. We appreciate his efforts and suggestions given to the party.”
Kishor, on his part, said the Congress needed “leadership” and “collective will” to fix its “deep-rooted structural problems”.
“I rejected the liberal offer of #Congress to join the party as part of the EAG and take responsibility for the elections.
“More than me, in my humble opinion, the party needs leadership and collective will to fix deep-rooted structural problems through transformational reforms,” he said in a series of tweets.
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