‘Sonia Gandhi did it’: Why Prashant Kishor’s poll advice to Rahul Gandhi made Congress see red

The Congress party has dismissed poll strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor’s suggestion that party leader Rahul Gandhi step back from leading the party for a period of five years in the event of another poor performance in the coming Lok Sabha elections. “When you are doing the same work for the last 10 years without any success, then there is no harm in taking a break… You should allow someone else to do it for five years,” Kishor said in a recent interview to PTI.

“Your mother did it,” Kishor said, referring to her decision to keep away from politics after her husband Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination and allowing PV Narasimha Rao to succeed him as the Prime Minister in 1991.

Kishor further said that knowledge of what one lacks and actively looking to fill those gaps is a key attribute of a good leader. “But it seems to Rahul Gandhi that he knows everything. Nobody can help you if you do not recognise the need for help. He believes he needs someone who can execute what he thinks is right. It is not possible,” Kishor said.

‘Rahul Gandhi unsuccessfully running the party for 10 years’

Kishor said that Rahul has been running the Congress unsuccessfully but is still unwilling to step aside to let somebody else steer the ship. Citing Rahul’s decision to resign as Congress president following the party’s drubbing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Kishor said that the Wayanad MP had written that he would let somebody else do the job.

“But, in effect, he has been doing contrary to what he had written,” Kishor said, adding that this, according to him, was undemocratic.

Can’t respond to consultants: Congress

Asked for a response to Kishor’s remarks, the Congress party, which made an unsuccessful attempt to rope in the strategist last year, said it does not respond to remarks by a consultant.

“I do not answer on remarks by consultants. Talk about political people, what is there to answer on consultants?” party spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said speaking to the media on Monday. Notably, Kishor had crafted the Congress’ winning campaign in Punjab led by then CM Amarinder Singh. He also came up with a revival plan but walked out over differences in the party’s plan for its execution.

Speaking to NDTV, Congress leader Ajoy Kumar said that Kishor’s prediction was a “BJP-sponsored” show. “Prashant Kishor is an RSS man masquerading as a political analyst. You should call it a BJP-sponsored show,” Kumar said.

‘Parivarvaad a liability’

In his interview to PTI, Kishor also said that ‘parivarvaad’ had become a liability in today’s time and age and that people have rejected parties with such leaders despite parties accepting them.

“Be it Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav or Tejashwi Yadav. Their respective parties may have accepted them as their leader but people have not. Has Akhilesh Yadav been able to lead the Samajwadi Party to victory,” Kishor asked.

Kishor said that a leader with a certain surname may have been an advantage in the post-independence era, but today, it has become a liability.