Hit the road in UP KISHOR’S MEET WITH MULAYAM IRKS CONGRESS

The state’s major political parties launch road shows, hoping to woo rural, backward community votes

NEW DELHI: Poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s meeting with Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav has angered a section in the Congress with Uttar Pradesh unit chief Raj Babbar claiming that he did not have the mandate to speak on the alliance issue.

Congress leaders are of the view that negotiations on any alliance with a political party have to be carried out by party leadership and not the poll strategist.

The party has repeatedly clarified that Kishor’s role is limited to only suggesting relevant points for the manifesto and the election campaign in Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.

A senior Congress functionary said it was made clear to Kishor before his appointment that he will have no role in organisational affairs, ticket distribution or in forging electoral alliances.

“It’s a free country. He can meet anybody. I don’t believe Congress mandated him to do so,” Babbar said on Kishor’s meeting with the SP supremo at senior leader Amar Singh’s residence in the national capital.

Babbar and Kishor have been at loggerheads over issues related to the party organisation.

In the past too, UP Congress leaders had complained to the central leadership about Kishor’s “unsolicited interference” in organisational matters after he summoned a meeting of office bearers in Lucknow.