Congress President Sonia Gandhi will take afinal call on inducting election strategist Prashant Kishor in the party asCongress leaders are divided over the issue. According to party sources, Soniahas already started the consultation process. Kishor has more recently worked withthe Trinamool Congress and has been credited as the man behind the thumpingvictory of the party in the West Bengal assembly elections.
As Kishor wants a full-fledged role anddecision-making authority on election-related issues, party leaders are averseof giving free hand to one person on the selection of candidates.
Reports said Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhihave no problem in working with Kishor as they have worked together in the pastin the 2017 UP election when the Congress was in alliance with the SamajwadiParty. The alliance did not work out and that is why a section of Congressinsiders consider Prashant Kishor's success as case-specific.
But the party's senior leaders are dividedover the recruitment, with some keen, saying it would be good optics for theparty. Others say the wild card entry will not make a difference and theGandhis must be ready to listen and engage with party leaders and workers,which they have stopped doing.
Mr Kishor had shared a list of plans to beimplemented by the party from public rallies, opposition get-togethers and ahost of other not-so-suitable plans for the Congress.
"Prashant Kishor has no magicwand," said one leader who doesn't belong to the dissenting group. Theelection strategist, he said, might also find it difficult to adapt to theculture and approach of the party.
In May, Mr Kishor remarked that the Congressis a "100-year-old political party and they have their ways offunctioning".
"They are not open to working on theways suggested by people like Prashant Kishor or others. They won't be open toworking with my style of functioning," he had said, adding that theCongress "must realise that it has a problem and then do something aboutit".
The Congress is preparing for polls in UttarPradesh, Uttarakhand, Punjab, Goa and some northeastern states next year.Kishor has recently handled campaigns of the Trinamool Congress, the DMK andthe YSRCP and has relations across party lines.