'Till Impending Electoral Rout in HP, Gujarat': For Prashant Kishor, Cong Missed the Bus With Chintan Shivir

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday termed the Congress’ ‘Chintan Shivir’ a failure as he took a dig at the meet for “giving some time to the leadership, at least till the impending electoral rout in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh”.

Kishor, who was involved in hectic parleys with the Grand Old Party earlier amid buzz of joining hands with them, dumped the party earlier this month, noting that more than him, the party needed leadership and collective will to fix the deep-rooted structural problems through transformational reforms.

Kishor had sought a free hand to rejuvenate the Congress but a section of leaders remained wary of him and his association with other political parties.

Later, the strategist decided to opt for a new innings from Bihar and is set to launch his ‘Jan Suraaj Abhiyan’ (good governance campaign) from Vaishali district on May 20, much ahead of his proposed 3,000-km ‘padayatra’ on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.

Taking to Twitter on Friday, Kishor said: “I’ve been repeatedly asked to comment on the outcome of #UdaipurChintanShivir. In my view, it failed to achieve anything meaningful other than prolonging the status-quo and giving some time to the #Congress leadership, at least till the impending electoral rout in Gujarat and HP!”

While the Congress was mulling bringing Kishor on board, a section of veterans had been thinking twice about his entry, given his association with several political outfits that are pitted against the Congress. Even the dissident group in the party, popularly known as G23, wasn’t too impressed with the idea of Kishor’s induction as they said the leadership was overlooking and ignoring in-house talent and relying on somebody who is not loyal to the party and is a professional consultant.

The poll strategist had earlier joined the JD(U) but was expelled in January 2020 over his stand on the Citizenship Amendment Act. He had been roped in by the Trinamool Congress, the DMK and the Aam Aadmi Party in their assembly election campaigns.

Read all the Latest Politics News here