Prashant Kishor declines offer to join Congress

Ending days of speculation, election strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday rejected the offer to join the Congress and said the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems.

“I declined the generous offer of #congress to join the party as part of the EAG & take responsibility for the elections,” tweeted Kishor, who has been in talks with the Congress leadership over the past few days.

“In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms,” he further said.

Kishor's tweet came minutes after the Congress officially confirmed that the poll strategist has declined its invitation to join the party. 

Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala tweeted, “Following a presentation & discussions with Sh. Prashant Kishor, Congress President has constituted a Empowered Action Group 2024 & invited him to join the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. He declined. We appreciate his efforts & suggestion given to party.”

In the past two weeks, reports claimed Kishor had met the Congress leadership, including interim president Sonia Gandhi, multiple times and made presentations for the upcoming polls to assemblies and the Lok Sabha. Reports said he was being considered for a senior position in the party.

However, several Congress leaders had publicly voiced opposition to his entry. On Monday, there were reports of unease in the Congress over I-PAC, Kishor's poll consultancy, tying up with the TRS for the 2023 assembly polls in Telangana.

Kishor has been engaged by Mamata Banerjee's TMC in West Bengal as well as Nitish Kumar's JD-U in Bihar for election management.