Ace poll strategist Prashant Kishor today put an end to speculation around his joining the Congress, pointing to the need for effective leadership and a collective will to undertake transformational reforms in order to fix deep-rooted structural problems facing the party. In a short statement put out on his Twitter handle, Kishor said he had declined a generous offer by Congress to join the party as part of its newly-constituted Empowered Action Group (EAG) and take responsibility for the elections.
Kishor’s statement comes amid strong indications that he was likely to join 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 (sic),” Kishor said on Twitter.
A confirmation of Kishor having rejected the Congress’ offer also came from party spokesperson Randeep Surjewala. “Following a presentation & discussions with Sh. Prashant Kishor, Congress President has constituted a Empowered Action Group 2024 & invited him to join the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. He declined. We appreciate his efforts & suggestion given to party,” Surjewala said in a tweet.
Kishor’s rejection put an end to strong rumours of him joining the Congress as part of its EAG.2024. The EAG is a new internal group constituted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi following the report by a committee set up to deliberate on Kishor’s presentation to Congress.
Kishor was reportedly keen to join the Congress and had desired to do so without any expectations, party leaders privy to the developments had earlier said. Kishor had also made a presentation to the party on which its top leaders deliberated last week.
While Kishor cited other factors behind his decision, a PTI report citing sources said the reason for his not joining the Congress was the pact signed by his company I-PAC with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) for the Telangana assembly elections which the Congress viewed as a conflict of interest. Kishor has earlier been roped in by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress in West Bengal as well as Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) in Bihar for election management.