Prashant Kishor to join Congress ahead of assembly polls?

Some Congress leaders consider Kishor as an "overrated" person and argue that in 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, he led to the decline of the party.

Political strategist Prashant Kishor is close to firming up ties with the Congress ahead of the assembly polls in five states scheduled for next year.

Kishor has met Congress leader Rahul Gandhi at least thrice in the last one week and discussed the revival of Congress, according to sources.

Sources also informed that the meetings have taken place at Rahul Gandhi's residence, which were attended by a few senior Congress leaders on each occasion including Ambika Soni, KC Venugopal, and AK Antony.

However, the leaders are not ready to comment on the developments.

If sources are to be believed, Rahul Gandhi has consulted leaders about it which fuelled speculation of Kishor's induction in the party.

In 2022, assembly elections will be held in Goa, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Punjab.

These questions are arising because Kishor, who has announced to leave the job of election management, can now appear in the avatar of a leader.

Recently he was appointed as the Principal Advisor by Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh ahead of the 2022 assembly polls in the state.

After meeting with the Gandhi family, the speculation has got further impetus that he may soon join hands.

According to sources, Rahul Gandhi in two big party meetings has sought the opinion of the leaders on the inclusion of Kishor in the grand old party.

This comes after Kishor's meeting with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and party interim president Sonia Gandhi.

Sources claim that Rahul Gandhi has made up his mind to include the political strategist in the party, but there are different opinions within the party on the issue.

Some leaders consider Kishor as an "overrated" person and argue that in 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, he led to the decline of the party.

Party leaders say that after Rahul's Kisan Yatra, there was an atmosphere in favour of Congress in the state, but at the last moment, Kishor dashed the party's hopes by negotiating with the Samajwadi Party. These leaders also have a problem with Kishor's unilateral way of working.

However, some leaders are in favour of including him in the party but are against handing over the party's decisions to him completely. Obviously, Rahul has to take the final decision and according to the indications so far, Kishor is sure to come to the party.

As a political strategist, Kishor worked with many parties to win the elections. Notably, he played an instrumental role in strategising Bharatiya Janata Party's  campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections after which Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister.

He helped Janata Dal-United chief Nitish Kumar to win the assembly polls in 2015.

Following this, Kumar appointed Kishor as the vice president of the JD-U.

However, Kishor was expelled from JD-U in January 2020 over his disagreement with the party on the issue of the National Register of Citizens.