The stage is prepared for political strategist Prashant Kishor to join the Congress after three high-level talks in the previous four days.
Meanwhile, Prashant Kishor presented a thorough presentation on the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections to a group of top Congress leaders at Sonia Gandhi’s 10 Janpath house on Saturday, April 16.
Moreover, on Monday evening and Tuesday morning, he held two further meetings at Sonia Gandhi’s residence.
However, Priyanka Gandhi, Mukul Wasnik, KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Digvijay Singh, Ambika Soni, and Kamal Nath are among the key figures he is alleged to have met during these meetings.
“Be prepared for the second coming of Prashant Kishor,” a Congress politician informed this writer over the phone on March 10th, the day the results of the five recent Assembly elections were released.
The Congress leader didn’t say what “second” meant, whether it was in reference to the political strategist’s work on the party’s Punjab and Uttar Pradesh campaigns in 2017 or the failed negotiations between the party leadership and Kishor in 2021.
However, none of this mattered. The bottom result was that, following the Assembly election catastrophe, the party’s readiness to engage with Kishor had increased significantly.
“We need help. We need a major overhaul in our organisation and our thinking,” a social media volunteer working for the party for more than five years, said.
The volunteer, an ardent believer in the Congress doctrine, had previously slammed any deal with Kishor, accusing him of “having zero convictions.” There has clearly been a shift in perspective.
Failed Negotiation Between Prashant Kishor and Congress in 2021
In 2021, Prashant Kishor and Congress held extensive conversations about collaborating. However, the talks fell through due to “fundamental differences,” as they were described.
According to sources, the talks did not end well, and there was a furious argument between the two parties.
However, for two reasons, the door was never entirely shut.
The Congress may not have agreed with Kishor’s approach, but many in the party agreed with his diagnosis of the party’s problems.
Kishor, for one, appears to have realised that while he might be able to win state elections with figures like Mamata Banerjee, MK Stalin, and YS Jaganmohan Reddy, a national challenge to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would be difficult without the Congress.
Between 2021 and 2022, Kishor’s vision for the party and the improvements he seeks have stayed mostly unchanged. The biggest shift has been the Congress party’s receptivity.
