Sonia Gandhi constitutes panel to look into Prashant Kishor’s proposal : Sources

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor (File image)

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is learnt to have constituted a panel of four leaders to look into election strategist Prashant Kishor’s proposals amid reports of Kishor joining the party, according to sources. The panel is expected to come up with its report within a week, the sources said.

Kishor met Sonia Gandhi in Delhi on April 18, second time in three days. The meeting attended by other senior Congress leaders including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, P Chidambaram, KC Venugopal, Ambika Soni, among others, discussed plans for assembly polls due this year and the 2024 general elections even as speculation is that he might as well join the party. A similar meeting between Kishor and Congress leaders was held on April 16.

Kishor is said to have given a proposal for the revival of the Congress along with a plan for the 2024 general elections in the meetings.  Some reports suggested Kishor may join the Congress as advisor. He has given a month's time for the Congress party to respond.

The assembly polls in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh are due later this year and the elections in Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, are scheduled in 2023.

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Sources said Kishor has proposed a plan for the party to contest 370 seats in the general elections besides specific plans for states. The suggestions include that the Congress fights alone in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Odisha, and forms alliances in Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Maharashtra, according to reports. Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is travelling abroad, has agreed to this proposal, according to a report by news agency ANI

Not everyone in the Congress is, however, keen to have Kishor on board. Many leaders have expressed resistance considering his help to regional leaders Mamata Banerjee, Jagan Mohan Reddy and K Chandrashekar Rao.

In the past Kishor has in TV interviews talked about his plans to work with the Congress. But the plans fell through following the results of West Bengal elections 2021.

Also, read | Prashant Kishor says Congress needs 'revamp' to defeat BJP, current leadership 'sceptical' about him

Kishor shot to fame in 2014, when he strategised Narendra Modi's maiden prime ministerial campaign. Soon after, he severed ties with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and went on to assisted Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar in 2015 Bihar assembly polls. The 45-year-old was most recently lauded for strategising the Trinamool Congress (TMC) campaign in the 2021 West Bengal assembly elections, where the Mamata Banerjee-led party returned to power with nearly a three-fourth.