Prashant Kishor to join Congress? Rahul Gandhi discusses with top party leaders: Sources

In a massive shake-up to Congress, ex-party chief Rahul Gandhi held a meeting with top leaders Ambika Soni, KC Venugopal, and AK Antony on Friday to discuss poll strategist Prashant Kishor joining the Congress. Sources state that the ex-JDU Vice president will be inducted into the Grand old party after the Parliament's monsoon session completes in the next two weeks. Kishor has met Rahul Gandhi at least thrice in the last one week and discussed the revival of Congress, according to sources.

Prashant Kishor to join Congress?

Recently, on July 14, Archana Dalmia, a close aide of Rahul Gandhi posted a tweet welcoming poll strategist Prashant Kishor into the Congress party. As speculations grew rife, she deleted the post minutes later. Kishor has allegedly held discussions with Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, sparking speculations of a united front against the BJP in the upcoming general elections.

Prior to meeting the Gandhis, Prashant Kishor met NCP Supremo Sharad Pawar multiple times in June, triggering 'third-front' rumours. While NCP denied claims that Pawar has appointed Kishor as an NCP strategist, Pawar has batted for uniting all Opposition parties against the ruling NDA. Kishor - who has advised Mamata Banerjee, Arvind Kejriwal, Priyanka Gandhi, Capt. Amarinder Singh, MK Stalin. Jagan Mohan Reddy, Nitish Kumar and Narendra Modi himself - recently quit as a poll strategist after trumping BJP in Bengal.

Commenting on his meeting with Pawar, Kishor said, "Meeting not formation of any third front. Front formed by few parties not enough to beat Modi. All third and fourth fronts are futile exercises against Modi. Meeting with Sharad Pawar was personal." Currently, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee met with Opposition leaders in Delhi, flagging off her campaign for a united alliance under her for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Kishor's track record as poll strategist

Recently, Kishor steered Mamata Banerjee to her third consecutive victory in Bengal, limiting the BJP to mere 77 seats. He also helped DMK chief MK Stalin win his maiden term in Tamil Nadu and helped Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal secure a fourth term. Kishor's biggest victory was engineering the Mahagathbandhan, working with Nitish Kumar for his election campaign in 2015. Later 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.

Kishor's successful poll campaigns include then-Gujarat CM Modi's 2012 election bid and 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 been appointed as Punjab CM Amarinder Singh's political adviser.