Lakhimpur: Prashant Kishor doubts Cong revival; points out 'structural weakness of GOP'

Poll-strategist Prashant Kishor on Friday took a subtle dig at the Indian National Congress and expressed doubts over its revival. Taking to Twitter, Kishor spoke about the party's structural weakness and remarked that people who are expecting a 'quick, spontaneous revival' of the grand old party-led opposition based on the Lakhimpur Kheri incident are in for a 'big disappoinment'. Kishor's reaction comes months after there were reports that he might join the Congress party.

In addition, Prashant Kishor also asserted that there are no 'quick fix solutions' for the deep-rooted problems and structural weakness within the Congress party. Kishor's reference to the Lakhimpur Kheri incident also comes in the view of the opposition's massive outrage over the violence that killed eight people, including four farmers. 

Rahul Gandhi discusses Prashant Kishor's induction into Congress with top leader 

Back in July, there were reports that the poll strategist was set to join the Congress party. Additionally, Congress leader and Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi too held a meeting with top leaders Ambika Soni, KC Venugopal, and AK Antony to discuss poll strategist Prashant Kishor joining the Congress. It was expected that the former JDU Vice president will be inducted into the Grand old party after the completion of the Monsoon session of the Parliament. Moreover, Rahul Gandhi and Prashant Kishor had met at least three times in a span of one week and discussed the revival of Congress. 

Prashant Kishor's track record as poll strategist

Prashant Kishor has a history of working with some of the key politicians in India. In his most recent stint, Kishor steered Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to her third consecutive victory in Bengal, limiting the BJP to mere 77 seats. Moreover, he also helped DMK chief MK Stalin to win his maiden term in Tamil Nadu and helped Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal secure a fourth term.

In the past, he was responsible for engineering the Mahagathbandhan, working with Nitish Kumar for his election campaign in 2015. Following that, in September 2018, on the advice of then BJP chief Amit Shah, Kishor was inducted as the vice president of Nitish Kumar's JDU. Following his induction in 2019, the JDU fared extremely well in the Lok Sabha polls along with ally BJP, completely decimating Lalu Prasad Yadav's RJD. He was later kicked out for publicly condemning Nitish for voting for CAA.

Moreover, he is also known for his successful poll campaigns, mainly Narendra Modi's 2012 campaign who back then was the Gujarat CM Modi's. Additionally, he was also a part of Modi's debut PM bid in 2014. Kishor helped Congress' Capt Amarinder Singh win Punjab Assembly polls in 2017 and Jagan Mohan Reddy win his maiden CM term in 2019. After falling out with the Modi-Shah duo in 2019, has was also appointed as Punjab CM Amarinder Singh's political adviser.