Kishor meets Sonia, could join Congress

NEW DELHI: Election strategist Prashant Kishor is just a step away from working with and possibly joining the Congress party on the 2024 general elections campaign, according to people aware of the development.

After a three and a half hour meeting with party president Sonia Gandhi, along with Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and other top leaders, the party for the first time spoke publicly about their deliberations with the strategist who ran winning campaigns for Trinamool Congress in West Bengal (2021), Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi (2020) and YSR Congress in Andhra Pradesh (2019), among others.

“Prashant Kishor gave a detailed presentation about the 2024 election strategy to the Congress president and some of her colleagues. The plan presented by Kishor will be looked at by a small group of people led by the Congress president,” the party’s organisation general secretary KC Venugopal said, reading from a statement. “That group will give a report, and within a week there will be a final decision.’’ This may just be a formality. HT spoke to two people present in the meeting who said the party was reeling with the devastating electoral loss in five states and “needed Kishor much more than he needed them”.

Kishor didn’t respond to HT’s queries.

Kishor’s presentation was full of data and results of various polls, one of the people cited above said, seeking anonymity. For instance, he presented the perception that was generated over rashtrawad (nationalism) as represented by the ruling party versus parivarvad (dynasty) as represented by the Congress.

Kishor is believed to have also conveyed how the BJP successfully gains mileage from a Narendra Modi versus Rahul Gandhi battle, and the role of the media in the battle for votes.

One of the key things that Kis

PTI Congress leaders Jairam Ramesh and Digvijay Singh at party president Sonia Gandhi’s residence on Saturday.