PK Won’t Be Congress’ Sankatmochan: Declines ‘Generous Offer,’ Talks of Leadership and Collective Will

Prashant Kishor has turned down Congress' offer to join the party. Taking to Twitter, the poll strategist said that the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep-rooted structural problems.

New Delhi:  Hopes of the Congress party ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections today took a beating after election strategist Prashant Kishor, with whom the party was in serious talks for a mega revival plan, declined to be a part of its ‘Empowered Action Group’ (EAG). The poll strategist was in talks with senior Congress leaders along with Sonia Gandhi, and Digvijaya Singh for the last few days wherein he had suggested a series of measures to revive the party which has faced humiliating losses in multiple elections. Political pundits and many in Congress were seeing Kishor as the party’s ‘Sankatmochan‘.

“I declined the generous offer of Congress to join the party as part of the EAG & take responsibility for the elections. In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep-rooted structural problems through transformational reforms”, tweeted Kishor.

I declined the generous offer of #congress to join the party as part of the EAG & take responsibility for the elections.

In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms.

— Prashant Kishor (@PrashantKishor) April 26, 2022

Reacting to Kishor’s decision, Congress’ national spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said that the party appreciate his efforts and the suggestion that he gave to strengthen the grand old party.

Following a presentation & discussions with Sh. Prashant Kishor, Congress President has constituted a Empowered Action Group 2024 & invited him to join the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. He declined. We appreciate his efforts & suggestion given to party.

— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) April 26, 2022

“Following a presentation & discussions with Sh. Prashant Kishor, Congress President has constituted an Empowered Action Group 2024 & invited him to join the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. He declined. We appreciate his efforts & suggestion given to party”, said Surjewala in a tweet.

If reports are to be believed, Kishor was keen to join the Congress. He had also given a presentation to the party on which its top leaders deliberated during the last week.

Possible Reasons Why Kishor Declined Congress’ Offer 

Pact with TRS: Though nothing has been confirmed as of now, Kishor’s link with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) did not go down well with the Congress, especially with the party’s Telangana unit where the party is the primary opposition. Last week, it was reported that Kishor was in Hyderabad, camping at the official residence of Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao.

No Free Hand Within Party: Some veteran leaders of the party like Digvijaya Singh, Mukul Wasnik, Randeep Surjewala, and Jairam Ramesh had deep reservations about giving the ‘newcomer’ a free hand to rejuvenate the party. Sources close to the party also hinted at a trust deficit on both sides. Sources said the eight-member group constituted by Sonia Gandhi to formulate the party’s strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls after Kishor made a presentation to the leadership took a serious note of I-PAC’s deal with the TRS.