Indian politics is abuzz with rumors of Prashant Kishor, India’s master political strategist, joining Congress.
Prashant Kishor recently held meetings with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi. Priyanka and Rahul Gandhi. This has fuelled speculation that he may be working on plan to bring opposition parties together.
It is also being rumored that he may join the Congress as a party member.
What is happening?
Prashant Kishor had earlier met Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra. They are believed to have discussed a revival plan for the Congress in the run up to the 2024 Lok Sabha election. The poll strategy for assembly elections due in 2022 was also discussed.
Now, Congress is holding a number of meetings recently, to discuss whether Prashant Kishor could fit into the party’s scheme of things.
The meeting was held through video-conferencing on July 22, when senior leaders such as Kamal Nath, Mallikarjun Kharge, AK Antony, Ajay Maken, Anand Sharma, Harish Rawat, Ambika Soni and KC Venugopal discussed the matter.
Sources say that Rahul Gandhi shared with the senior Congress leaders about his meeting with Prashant Kishor recently. Prashant Kishor reportedly laid out a plan for the Congress party with a role for himself.
Opposition to unite against BJP?
Opposition leaders of many parties met with Sharad Pawar, the leader of NCP, to discuss a way forward to combat the growing influence of BJP in the country. The meeting was hosted by Pawar and seen by analysts as the first step towards putting a formidable challenge against the ruling party in 2024.
Prashant Kishor also held meetings with Sharad Pawar, who
who is believed to be in a position to gather disparate Opposition voices together for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls in which no single party in Opposition can challenge the BJP.
Kishor’s magic touch.
Prashant Kishor is seen as a kingmaker of Indian politics raking up one impressive win after another.
He drafted the strategy for Narendra Modi in Gujarat Polls of 2012 and general elections of 2014, both which Modi duly won. In 2015, he moved away from BJP and guided Nitish Kumar in Bihar polls that year that saw Nitish and Lalu emerge victorious.
He did however suffer a defeat in the ill fated elections of UP in 2017. But he soon recovered to deliver a win for Congress in 2017 Punjab polls. Leading Shiv Sena to a key place in Maharashtra elections, followed by successes for YSR Congress’ Jagan Mohan Reddy in 2019 and for AAP’s Arvind Kejriwal in 2020, cemented Kishor’s status as India’s standout political strategist.
If he aligns with Congress his hands will be full and the repair job he has is one massive task.