Amid buzz over poll strategist Prashant Kishor joining Congress, Kishor on Monday evening met party’s chief Sonia Gandhi for a planning session on the upcoming assembly polls and the Lok Sabha elections.
It was the second meeting in the last three days as the poll strategist had met Gandhi on Saturday and gave a detailed presentation to the top leadership on the way forward for 2024 general elections, while expressing readiness to join the party.
The Congress is considering Prashant Kishor’s proposal for the revival of the grand-old party and a game plan for the upcoming elections.
Meanwhile, another meeting of top Congress leaders was held at Sonia Gandhi’s residence to deliberate on the party’s strategy for the assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh slated for later this year. Senior Congress leaders KC Venugopal, Ambika Soni, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mukul Wasnik, Jairam Ramesh, P Chidambaram and Randeep Singh Surjewala were among those present.
Sources told News18 that Prashant Kishor was also present during the meeting.
During the strategy group meeting that lasted over four hours, the leaders discussed threadbare various facets of the party’s electoral strategy.
Senior Congress leader KC Venugopal had indicated about the formation of the group that would discuss Kishor’s plan for the upcoming assembly and parliamentary elections and give suggestions and its report to the Congress president for further action.
The party has been given the rest of this month to respond to Kishor’s proposal, which incorporates a plan for the party to contest 370 seats in the next general elections and the cobbling of strategic partnerships in certain states.
Kishor suggested that the party contest alone in a few state assembly elections where it is strong and has remained either on the top or in the second position in previous elections.
He also told the leadership to start afresh in states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha. Kishor, who has held several rounds of meetings with the top Congress leadership, is also learnt to have made suggestions on the upcoming assembly elections including the induction of Naresh Patel, a Patidar leader in Gujarat.
In the earlier meeting, Kishor told the select gathering that he is ready to join the Congress “without any expectations" and does not want anything but his plan should be implemented to help strengthen the party at the grassroots level, sources said.
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