T Congress hopes of revival shatter after Prashant Kishor declines to join party

Hyderabad: The Telangana Congress' hopes are believed to have flown down in the drain over rejuvenation of the party in the state where many party leaders including the TPCC chief Revanth Reddy anticipating that the poll strategist Prashant Kishor would join them. Soon after the announcement of Prashant Kishor of him declining the offer by Congress to join the party, the state Congress leaders are reportedly upset over the decision.

The State Congress leaders were quick to respond to the reports of Prashant Kishor meeting the Chief minister K chandrashekar Rao for continuous two days at Pragathi Bhavan recently. The TPPC chief responded stating that that Political strategist Prashant Kishor met Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in order to end all his relationships with the pink party. He said PK would not have any kind of alliance with the TRS party now and added that all his predictions on the issue had now become reality.

Revanth made it clear that Prashant Kishor would also follow the instructions of the high command after joining the Congress party.

The comments made by Revanth Reddy have assumed importance in the wake of news reports that the firm owned by PK, IPAX, had struck a deal with the ruling TRS party to work for its victory in the next Assembly elections. PK also camped at KCR's camp office Pragati Bhavan for two days. PK has reportedly requested KCR to take the Congress party along with his party if an alternative political platform is formed in the country.

PK told KCR that it would not be possible to defeat BJP unless all Opposition political parties worked together after joining hands. However, KCR reportedly told PK that his party would maintain equal distance with the Congress and the BJP in Telangana.

Revanth Reddy also jumped to conclusions and declared that the day would come soon when he would be addressing a press conference in Hyderabad along with Prashant Kishor. He claimed that Prashant Kishor himself would ask voters to defeat TRS, despite the latter's agreement with I-PAC. He said that Kishor would work with them to ensure defeat of the TRS in the State. Similarly, many others including Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, T Jagga Reddy and other senior Congress leaders had also reacted on the issue and exuded confident that Prashant Kishor would join the party and help them revive the 137-year-old party in Telangana.

It is to mention here that, Prashant Kishor on Tuesday declined the offer by Congress to join the party and stated that the party needs 'leadership' and 'collective will' to fix 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," Kishor tweeted.

"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 added. The Congress on Tuesday officially announced that election Kishor will not be working for the party as he declined to be part of the empowered action group for the 2024 general elections.

The declaration came a day after Sonia Gandhi had announced the constitution of the group. Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet, "Following a presentation and discussion with Prashant Kishor, the Congress President has constituted an 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."

The group was formed after a report was submitted by an eight-member committee on April 21. "Congress President Sonia Gandhi received a report from the eight-member group on April 21. Today she discussed the report with the group. Based on the discussions, the Congress President has decided to constitute an Empowered Action Group for 2024 in order to address the political challenges ahead," the party had said in an official statement on Monday.