Prashant Kishor may join Congress, advocates reconsidering alliances in states for 2024 polls
Apr 16, 2022
By Siddharth Sharma
New Delhi [India], April 16 : Election poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Saturday met with Congress interim President Sonia Gandhi at her residence here in the national capital.
The meeting was also attended by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi along with a group of senior leaders including Mallikarjun Kharge, AK Antony, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken, Ambika Soni and general secretary organisation KC Venugopal.
The meeting was held amid the buzz of Kishor joining Congress party.
After today'meeting, Venugopal said that Kishor had given a detailed presentation with a road map for the 2024 General elections.
When asked the senior leader and the party's general secretary organisation said that role of Kishor in the Congress party will be known within a week.
According to the sources accessed by ANI, Kishor in his presentation suggested that Congress should fight alone in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, and it should form alliances in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra to which Rahul Gandhi has agreed,
Kishore has clearly said that Congress should focus on 370 Lok Sabha constituencies for the 2024 General elections. He also added that specific strategy should be formulated with respect to certain states like Uttar Pradesh Bihar and Odisha where he wants Congress Party to work on a war footing basis and not form any alliance.
"But, the party leadership is yet to take a call on this because the party has a strong alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) in Bihar. In certain states like Odisha, only a single Member of Parliament has been elected in the 2019 general elections and in Uttar Pradesh recently in the Assembly polls Congress loss the plot very badly. Kishor's belief that if the Congress party follows a road map, then there will be a turning point in the 2024 elections," a Congress leader said on anonymity.
Venugopal said that a small committee will be formed by Sonia Gandhi to look into the suggestions and ideas of the poll analyst and how to take them forward.
While sources have indicated that the strategist will be joining the Congress party, Kishor, however, has specifically said that he does not want to hold any post and will be content with whatever role the Congress party gives him.
The poll analyst had earlier fallen out with the Congress after several rounds of talks, the most recent after the win of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal.
