Page 6 - The indian EYE 050622

NATION
BACK TO LIMBO:
How a deal between Congress
and poll strategist fell through
Prashant Kishor held several meetings in the last 15 days with Congress’s top leadership and
gave a proposal to revamp the party ahead of the 2024 general election
OUR BUREAU
New Delhi
fter several rounds of meet-
ings with Congress top brass
Ain the last few days, poll strat-
egist Prashant Kishor has declined to
join the Congress party.
Prashant Kishor has held sever-
al meetings in the last 15 days with
Congress’s top leadership and gave a
proposal to revamp the party ahead
of the 2024 general election. Kishor
had given a detailed presentation
with a road map for the 2024 Gener-
al elections.
Taking to Twitter today, Con-
gress spokesperson Randeep Sur-
jewala said Congress interim pres-
ident Sonia Gandhi constituted an
Empowered Action Group 2024
and invited Kishor to join the party
as part of the group with defined re-
sponsibility but he declined.
“Following a presentation and
discussions with Prashant Kishor,
Congress President has constituted a
Empowered Action Group 2024 and
invited him to join the party as part
of the group with defined responsi-
bility. He declined. We appreciate
his efforts and suggestion given to
party,” Surjewala tweeted.
This came after the Congress
panel set up by president Sonia
Gandhi to work out a revival plan, as
suggested by poll strategist Prashant
Kishor, submitted a report on its
findings on Friday.
In his presentation to Congress
leadership, suggested that Congress
should fight alone in Uttar Pradesh,
Bihar and Odisha, and it should form
alliances in Tamil Nadu, West Ben-
gal and Maharashtra to which Rahul
Gandhi has agreed. Kishor is learnt
to have said that Congress should fo-
cus on 370 Lok Sabha constituencies
for the 2024 general elections.
MAY 06, 2022 |
Prashant Kishor declines the offer to join Congress (ANI) the Congress, poll strategist Prashant
Congress leader after a meeting with Sonia Gandhi (ANI)
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The Indian Eye 6
After the recent poll debacle
in five states, Congress was holding
negotiations with Kishor. The re-
sults of five Assembly polls came as
a shock to Congress which was hop-
ing to do well to revive its prospects
for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and
to fend off the emerging challenge
from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
and Trinamool Congress to replace it
as the fulcrum of anti-BJP politics in
the country.
Earlier, Rajasthan Chief Minis-
ter Ashok Gehlot has openly praised
Prashant Kishor, saying that he is
a “brand”. Senior Congress leader
Veerapa Moily has said that those
opposing Kishor’s entry to the party
are “anti-reformers”.
After declining the offer to join
Kishor on Tuesday said that the par-
ty needs “leadership and collective
will” to fix deep-rooted structural
problems through transformational
reforms.
Taking to Twitter, Kishor said, “I
declined the generous offer of Con-
gress to join the party as part of the
Empowered Action Group (EAG)
and take responsibility for the elec-
tions.
In my humble opinion, more
than me the party needs leader-
ship and collective will to fix the
deep-rooted structural problems
through transformational reforms.”
Kishor has held several meetings in
the last 15 days with Congress’s top
leadership and gave a proposal to
revamp the party ahead of the 2024
general election. Kishor had given
a detailed presentation with a road
map for the 2024 General elections.
Following the Lakhimpur Kheri
incident in October last year, Kishor
had said that the people are looking
forward to an opposition led by the
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