The poll strategist seems to have nothing new to offer to solve the problems of the grand old party going on the wrong track again.
New Delhi: The Congress seems to be going on the wrong track by choosing to be guided by the poll strategist Prashant Kishor once again. Kishor has offered nothing new in his presentation. These are the indications from the information being leaked by Kishor to the media.
In fact, election of a fulltime Congress president, organizational revival and assigning responsibilities are some of the key issues that have led to massive internal tussles over the last two years. If the Congress is being suggested to contest only 270 seats in 2024, then there is nothing new in it, as the grand old party had worked on this strategy in 2019. Then, the Congress strategists were thinking that the BJP would not be able to repeat the 2014 performance in 2019 and the grand old party will manage to bag around 200 seats to form the government.
But Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s popularity demolished the opposition in 2019, and BJP got more than 300 seats. Now, the biggest question is whether Kishor has any idea to counter PM Modi’s charisma. The answer is perhaps in negative. PM Modi’s political stature has continued to grow since 2019. The UP and Uttarakhand Assembly poll results have proved that PM Modi’s massive popularity remains unchanged in the Hindi belt. But the Congress will be implementing what Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra want. In view of the high level meetings and other developments, Rahul Gandhi seems to have decided to bet on Kishor. However, Rahul Gandhi himself went abroad when such meetings on Kishor took place. It was due to instructions of Rahul Gandhi that the senior leaders were forced to listen to Kishor. Sources say most of the veterans are not happy with Kishor for various reasons. One, Kishor has already made adverse remarks against Congress and Rahul Gandhi. Two, Kishor does not believe any specific ideology. That is the reason why Prashant Kishor’s ties with any party do not last long.
The trend so far has been that Kishor goes with the party which already happens to be in a winning position owing to its leader’s popularity. In 2014, there was a Modi wave which led to resounding victory of the BJP. After being ignored, Kishor went with Nitish Kumar. In 2015, Nitish Kumar led a grand alliance including RJD, Congress and other smaller parties in Bihar and defeated BJP. The victory was then attributed to popularity of Nitish and Lalu Prasad. Similarly, Arvind Kejriwal, Jagan Mohan Reddy and Mamata Banerjee were famous faces who ensured victories on their parties in Delhi, Andhra Pradesh and Bengal respectively. But Kishor took credit of the victory which was not fair at all.
In the last Punjab polls, Prashant Kishor worked for Captain Amarinder Singh. The Congress won in Punjab due to Amarinder’s own popularity and vote transfers. But in this year’s elections, when Kishor left the Congress work after realizing that the party will lose in Punjab. Similarly, he had left the Congress job in UP in 2017.
This time, Kishor started working for a front under the leadership of either Mamata Banerjee or Sharad Pawar that could challenge PM Modi. But his efforts did not succeed after Congress refused to accept any other leader. Now, Mamata Banerjee is said to unhappy over Kishor’s association with Congress to chalk out future strategy. Kishor tried to achieve something in Bihar where he tried to replicate Arvind Kejriwal’s formula by announcing to launch a big social organisation. But later, he backtracked and could not contest polls. He proceeded to Bengal exploring possibility to form a front with Mamata Banerjee. But he started looking for a new party after his plan flopped. He even tried to put in place a non-Congress alliance under Mamata’s leadership. But five state poll results spoilt his plan. After this, Kishor trained his sights on Congress which has faced a series of defeats, and he finally managed to convince Rahul Gandhi. He started holding meetings of the party at a time when the process of organizational elections is underway, and the party is to face the polls back to back in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The Congress does not have a strong leadership as of now. The Gandhi family does not seem to be fit to challenge PM Modi. With this being the case, the question is whether the Gandhis will accept any non-Gandhi leader. Will any other leader outside Gandhi family challenge PM Modi? There is no denying that PM Modi will be the fact of BJP in all state elections before 2024. Now, UP CM Yogi Adityanath is also another challenge for the Congress. Kishor seems to have no leader available who could challenge PM Modi and CM Yogi. Similarly, the grand old party has other political challenges in various states. SP leader Akhilesh Yadav and BSP supremo Mayawati will not entertain any proposal from Congress in UP. In Maharashtra, NCP and Shiv Sena will not give Congress more than 3-4 seats.