Congress’ ‘advisor remarks’ mocked after Prashant Kishore poll suggestion

The Congress dismissed poll strategist Prashant Kishore’s latest suggestions and criticism, saying the “consultant’s remarks” did not require any comment. In a detailed interview with the Press Trust of India yesterday, Mr Kishore gave the party and its senior leader Rahul Gandhi a laundry list of suggestions that he would step down if the party underperforms. .

Asked about Mr. Kishore’s remarks today, Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said, “I will not respond to the adviser’s remarks. Talk about politicians, not the adviser. What’s there to answer?”

In an interaction with PTI, Mr. Kishore said that for all practical purposes, Mr. Gandhi has been leading the party for a decade but has been unable to deliver on his promises or step down.

“When you’ve been doing the same job for the last ten years without any success, it doesn’t hurt to take a break,” Mr Kishore said. “You should allow someone else to do this for five years.” Your mother Did it,” he said, referring to Sonia Gandhi’s handover of party affairs to PV Narasimha Rao after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991.

The poll strategist, who is seen as a harsh critic of the Congress party, said Gandhi’s approach to conducting the elections was “also anti-democratic”. Mr Kishore, who engineered the winning election campaign led by Amarinder Singh in 2017, also proposed a Congress revival plan but fell apart amid disagreements with party leaders over its implementation. quit.

After a decade of UPA rule, Congress is in disarray, with the party’s seats, national vote share, influence and strength in states all declining rapidly.

After winning in Karnataka last year, Mr Kishore advised the Congress not to “mistake the results of the Assembly polls with the results of the Lok Sabha polls”.

Mr. Kishore officially resigned as a poll strategist after the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections, which saw his client Mamata Banerjee post her best-ever performance.