How the Congress-Prashant Kishor saga came to an end

Days of political suspense came to an end on Tuesday with poll strategist Prashant Kishor announcing that he is not joining the Congress as part of its empowered action group (EAG).

In a tweet posted on Tuesday, Kishor wrote, that he turned down the offer from the grand old party. “I declined the generous offer of #congress to join the party as part of the EAG & take responsibility for the elections. In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms,” he tweeted.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that Kishor was invited to join the EAG 2022 with “defined responsibility”, which he declined. “We appreciate his efforts & suggestions given to the party,” he wrote on Twitter.

Kishor held several rounds of talks with the Congress leadership over, as supporters hoped he could revive the fortunes of the flailing party. While he wanted to make big changes to the party, the senior leadership was not prepared for a complete overhaul.

“The difference was on how to execute the revival. PK wanted to be a disruptor. The party wanted incremental changes,” a senior party leader told NDTV.

However, conversations between the strategist and the party go beyond the last two weeks. We take a look at how it all started and how the saga has come to an end.

The talks that started in 2021

Kishor had his first round of talks with the party in May 2021. He met with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and a month later gave her a presentation on how to transform the party.

In July 2021, Rahul Gandhi and his sister Priyanka Gandhi met Kishor in New Delhi. This was at a time when then Punjab CM Amarinder Singh and Navjot Singh Sidhu were at loggerheads and the meeting fuelled speculation that it could result in a major decision over the party’s strategy for the 2022 Punjab Assembly elections.

Going against the Gandhis

However, his talks with the Congress did not materialise. And soon he turned against the Gandhis. He was also said to be behind the increasingly vocal idea that a non-Congress leader takeover as UPA chairperson, according to a report in The Indian Express.

He joined hands with the Trinamool Congress for the 2022 Goa Assembly polls but things do not work out for the party – its foray into the coastal state flopped as it did not win a single seat.

The Congress was not too pleased with Kishor in Goa and even accused his political consultancy firm I-PAC of “betraying” Mamata Banerjee in the run-up to the election.

But in politics, bridges are built and burnt far too quickly. And after Trinamool’s disastrous performance, the talks between Kishor and the Congress were restarted.

The changes proposed by Kishor

Kishor was eager to join the party, according to media reports. But the Congress remain divided on the role he would play.

The last four days have seen high drama, as Kishor worked with the senior Congress leadership to finalise his induction. He made several presentations, of which one was leaked to the media, chalking out a strategy for the party in the 2024 general elections.

Among Kishor’s suggestions to overhaul the party was appointing a non-Gandhi head. He also suggested that it should fight alone in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha, and should form alliances in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Maharashtra, to which Rahul Gandhi agreed. He suggested that the Congress should focus on 370 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, reports NDTV.

The Telangana twist

Things were close to being finalised when reports emerged that Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) roped in I-PAC to lead its poll campaign for the 2023 state Assembly polls.

Kishor, who is said to have held several meetings with Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao, visited Hyderabad on Saturday and stayed at the CM’s official residence. Even though I-PAC’s Rishi Singh would helm the TRS campaign, the tie-up left made the Congress nervous.

Even as talks were on, many Congress veterans were wary of roping in Kishor, keeping in mind his advisory role to rival parties – the Trinamool, Jagan Mohan Reddy’s YSR Congress and then the TRS.

Congress divided

An eight-member special team was reportedly set up by Sonia Gandhi to evaluate Kishor’s suggestions for the party’s revival. However, they wanted the strategist to dissociate from other political parties and devote himself solely to the grand old party, according to NDTV.

The committee was divided on Kishor’s entry into the party. While Priyanka Gandhi and Ambika Soni wanted him on board, Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, and Jairam Ramesh had their reservations.

Some Congress leaders were not convinced that Kishor should be given a free hand to change the workings of the party. There was also reservation about the execution of his plan — the concerns are that it might overlap with his other interests vis-a-vis other parties, reports NDTV. Kishor had suggested tie-ups with regional leaders including Mamata Banerjee and KCR.

The plan to rejuvenate the Congress hinted at sidelining everyone who was not a mass leader in the day-to-day functioning of the party. This would mean that most leaders of the Congress Working Committee, the highest decision-making body, would be left out.

Sources in the committee told NDTV on Monday said Sonia Gandhi held a separate meeting with Kamal Nath and was expected to take a final call on Kishor even if there was no consensus.

However, things came to an end because of lack of trust on both the sides. Kishor did not appear completely on board during the meeting with Sonia Gandhi and the special team. They too were reluctant to allow him to introduce sweeping changes.

With inputs from agencies

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