Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, April 25: A decision on the induction of the election strategist Prashant Kishor (PK) in the party giving a free hand to his Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) for the revival of the Congress was further delayed with the party president Sonia Gandhi appointing yet another committee to weigh the blueprint submitted by him.
But considering the stiff opposition to his entry coming from a large number of senior leaders of the party, the move seems to be all set to fizzle out and Kishor is highly unlikely to become the guide for the Congress to challenge the prime minister Narendra Modi in the 2024 Parliamentary elections and face the BJP in various state Assembly elections before the mega poll.
The issue has particularly become complicated after the I-PAC signed a deal with the Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on Sunday for helping the party in the coming assembly elections in the state next year. Signing up rival parties has been a strict no-no from the special committee deliberating on Kishor’s entry, and while the election strategist has formally dissociated from IPAC, he is widely known to be privy to the decisions of the organisation that he led for nearly a decade.
The Congress sources said the eight-member committee which was handed the Kishor’s blueprint to study and recommend on his inclusion in the party, was divided on Kishor’s entry, which some see as necessary in view of the party’s inexorable downward spiral. While those in favour include Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Ambika Soni, but the naysayers are Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala and Jairam Ramesh. KC Venugopal and AK Antony marshal points both for and against and their personal views are not yet known.
Sources indicated that the current divide is on allowing Kishor a free hand to start his own set-up and change things within the party. There is also reservation about the execution of his plan — the concerns are that it might overlap with his other interests vis-a-vis other parties. But the real reason for the veterans objecting to his entry apparently the apprehension that he might recommend change of the old beaten faces to be replaced by new young blood and newer strategy that the old leaders are not ready to adopt.
Instead of taking a decision, Sonia Gandhi on Monday set up yet another internal group—the empowered action group 2024—to address the political challenges it faces. However, the composition of the group is yet to be announced. The party also officially announced that it will hold a brainstorming session—Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir—from May 13 to May 15 in Udaipur in Rajasthan. Around 400 Congress leaders from across the country would attend the three-day session.
“Today, she discussed that report with the group. Based on the discussions, the Congress president has decided to constitute an empowered action group 2024 in order to address the political challenges ahead,” said Congress communication department head Randeep Surjewala. Surjewala said the focus of the deliberations at the brainstorming session will be on the current political and economic situation and the challenges they pose to society.
“Issues relating to the welfare and well-being of kisans (farmers) and khet mazdoors (farm labourers), Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, OBCs, religious and linguistic minorities and women social justice and empowerment and youth will also be discussed in detail. In addition, matters relating to organisational restructuring and strengthening will be examined. The Chintan Shivir will also deliberate on the broad strategy of the Congress for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections,” he said.
Sonia Gandhi also met members of the eight-member group which went through Kishor’s presentation. The group had met several times last week to go through Kishor’s presentation and prepare a report. In principle, sources said, the committee has agreed with most of the suggestions made by Kishor but are divided on his entry into the party, particularly after the I-PAC signed the agreement with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) on Sunday.
Kishor has been political advisor to Trinamool Congress chief and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Jagan Mohan Reddy, the chief of YSR Congress. Both parties are old rivals of the Congress in the states. Kishor’s plans for rejuvenation of the party — at least the two-year-old one that has been leaked to the public — includes a policy of leadership revamp under which all but mass leaders have been sidelined in terms of giving direction to the party and its day-to-day leadership. This is likely to include most of the leaders currently in the Working Committee, which is the party’s highest decision-making body.
Those in favour of Kishor’s entry, are of the opinion that it would expose the faultlines in the Congress leadership and how a key “coterie” operates. Both sides, however, unanimously agree that nothing can be done without the express approval and support of the Congress president. Sources in the committee today said Mrs Gandhi had a separate meeting with Kamal Nath and she could decide in Kishor’s favour irrespective of the lack of consensus.
This is not the first time that the Congress is looking for consultants and lateral entries; neither is it the first time that the party will be attempting to work with Kishor. He handled campaigns for the 2017 polls in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Punjab, but parted ways after Kishor felt he was not given much credit for victory in Punjab then, and received altogether too much of the blame for the losses in U.P. and Uttarakhand.
What is new this time around is not that the Congress is casting about for outside talent for help, but the fact that Kishor is aiming to join the party, and have his strategic interventions go far beyond campaign strategies to what is considered the domain of the party organisation: candidate selection. Kishor has worked in this wider ambit for other parties, including the Janata Dal (U) in 2015, the Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) in 2019, the Aam Aadmi Party in 2020, and the DMK and the Trinamool Congress in 2021. In fact, he even did so in 2017 for Amarinder Singh in Punjab, but it was on the Congress leader’s behalf and not at the party’s behest.
Prashant Kishor, and his then organisation, Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG), burst on the political scene as an adjunct to Narendra Modi’s juggernaut-like campaign for the 2014 parliamentary elections that took the BJP to a full majority in Lok Sabha. It captured the popular imagination but political consulting has a longer history in India.