New Delhi: In a bid to strengthen the party for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and meet future challenges, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi formed a Empowered Action Group. Election strategist Prashant Kishor was also invited to join the group. But on Tuesday, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala tweeted that 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.
Few minutes later, Prashant Kishor also tweeted and defended himself saying that he was asked to take responsibility for the election.
“I declined the generous offer of #congress to join the party as part of the EAG & take responsibility for the elections.
In my humble opinion, more than me the party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms,” Kishor Twitted.
According to the report, Prashant Kishor had advised that the party should take immediate decisions as well as have separate wings for electoral management and organisation management. Prashant Kishor wanted him to be given a free hand to reform the Congress, which was not acceptable to senior Congress leaders.
At the same time, Prashant Kishor’s advice on quitting old alliance partners in Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir and Maharashtra and on the party leadership also blocked the way. A Congress functionary said, Prashant Kishor wanted the party’s prime ministerial candidate and the Congress president to be different. Kishor wanted Priyanka Gandhi to be made the party president, while the party wanted Rahul Gandhi to become the president again.
According to Congress sources, in his presentation, Prashant Kishor had also said that the Congress should focus on around 370 Lok Sabha seats and enter the fray with an alliance in Maharashtra, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.