Kishor’s possible Congress entry generates internal dissent

New Delhi: The Congress high command may have sought the help of “political aide” Prashant Kishor in a “last ditch attempt” to ensure that the party stays in its control, but the move has resulted in unhappiness among several of the party’s senior leaders. They are wondering why Kishor was being brought in, given that until recently, Congress’ political opponents were employing him to weaken the party, an objective which he managed to achieve to a large extent.
Since he started working for the then BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi in the 2014 general elections, Kishor and his company—Indian-Political Action Committee (I-PAC)—have provided their services to the Grand Alliance (JDU, RJD and Congress) in Bihar in the November 2015 elections; to the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance in the February 2017 Uttar Pradesh elections; to the Congress in Punjab in February 2017; to YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh in April 2019; to Aam Aadmi Party for Delhi in the January 2020 elections; to the DMK for the April 2021 Tamil Nadu elections; and finally to the All India Trinamool Congress for the April 2021 West Bengal elections and Goa elections.
Of these eight states where Kishor and I-PAC were active, their employers won in six—Bihar, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu—while they lost in Uttar Pradesh and Goa.
Out of this, in Bihar, Delhi and West Bengal, Kishor’s employers managed to retain power. In the rest three—Punjab, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu—they defeated the incumbent government, a feat that could not be replicated in UP and Goa.
According to a senior Congress leader known for putting his views articulately, what is being marketed as “achievements by Kishor and I-PAC” is in fact the damage that Congress has suffered in the hands of Kishor. “Since 2017, he has worked with our political opponents and strengthened their hands by poaching our leaders—from Assam to West Bengal to Goa, this has been his way of working. To be honest, I am aghast that our leaders are engaging with him for the 2024 polls. Will he break his professional ties with the TMC, YSR Congress and his possible future contract with AAP if he is given a crucial role in the Congress? All these political parties are directly challenging us in their respective states where they are in power. In Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, the AAP is expected to fight the coming Assembly elections with its full might and basically try to defeat us. So how will Kishor handle this? On the one hand he will be working for us for 2024, but on the other he will be working for our opponents to defeat us in different states,” the leader said. According to him, similar views were held by other leaders, including those who are a part of the G-23.
Even as Kishor was meeting the Gandhis and giving them a presentation on how he intended to strengthen the Congress, one of the tallest leaders of Congress in Assam, Ripun Bora joined the TMC, while stating that Kishor was amongst the first to congratulate him for joining the TMC.
Upon his entry, Kishor and his team are also expected to take over the communication and outreach mechanism of the Congress, something which has been termed as among one of the “biggest weaknesses” of the party. Since March 2015, the party’s public and media relations have been handled by Randeep Surjewala who replaced former Union Minister Ajay Maken.
Another big issue that is disturbing Congress leaders, including Digvijaya Singh and A.K. Antony, is Kishor’s demand to be accountable to no one except the three Gandhis which, if accepted, will lead to discontent among the top leaders. “His past record shows that once he gets close to the leadership, all other leaders are alienated from the top circle. If this happens here too, then it will damage the party even more which is already facing internal issues. Ideally, he should be made a part of a committee that has other members too, instead of making him the de facto number four (after Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra) in the party,” a senior Congress leader told The Sunday Guardian.
However, as has been the Congress’ style of functioning, there is no clarity on whether all the senior leaders are on the same page on the question of inducting Kishor, as a result of which the final decision, though termed as collective, will be taken by the Gandhis.
As outlined by The Sunday Guardian earlier (Congress to focus on crossing 150 in 2024 Lok Sabha elections (7 August 2021), the Congress is planning to put candidates only on winnable seats and not contest from those seats where one of the other Opposition parties has a better chance to win in a bid to cross at least 100 seats in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. The party is also not going to be adamant on one of its MPs being made the Prime Minister if the Congress-led alliance arrives at a government forming situation. Congress strategists believe that if they contest on only 400 seats out of 543, and get a strike rate of 40%, they will easily win on 150 seats.
During the recent presentation that he made to the party leadership and other senior leaders, Kishor, among other suggestions, had asked for the party to focus on 350 seats and tie up with other parties on the remaining seats, including in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. In all these states the ruling party is I-PAC’s client. He has also suggested the creation of a “shadow cabinet” system that will be headed by Rahul Gandhi. However, this idea is something that has already been tried in the Congress and has failed to take off (Congress’ shadow panels, Twitter handles defunct, September 2020).
Interestingly, most of the material that was used in the presentation, which was later shared with the media, was distributed to them by non-Congress “sources”. Questions sent to Randeep Surjewala, who apart from being the head of the media committee, is also a member of the core committee, on how the Congress plans to address this conflict of interest and how it will handle the “baggage” that Kishor carries, did not elicit a response till the time this report went to the press. The Sunday Guardian’s similar email to Prashant Kishor, too, did not generate a response.
According to I-PAC insiders, the company has been working on Gujarat oriented election campaigns for “quite some time” now. “This includes collecting and collating data which will be used for campaigns, irrespective of the party which employs us,” an I-PAC functionary said. This indicates that in case Kishor joins the Congress, his first major challenge would be to defeat the BJP in Gujarat.
According to I-PAC’s assessment, the Congress was in a good position to defeat the ruling BJP in the state where elections are scheduled for December this year. In the 2017 elections, BJP, though managing to retain power, saw the number of its seats declining and the Congress winning the maximum number of seats in the last 32 years.
The Congress core members believe that if the BJP is defeated in the home state of Prime Minister Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah, that will give the opposition parties a great head-start towards unseating the BJP in the 2024 polls. According to a senior leader, the timing of starting this whole exercise too has raised questions. “The party is going through a membership exercise after which the internal elections to seek a new president will take place. Bringing in a professional to handle the party’s campaign is a big step. Shouldn’t it have waited till the new president is elected? I believe that even within the Gandhi family members, there are differences over what role, if any, Kishor should be given,” the leader said.