Karnataka Congress seems wary of 'analyst' Prashanth Kishore

Bengaluru: After the advent of G-23 in Congress, the party had so far treaded carefully not to lose the support of the senior politicians in the party. The party could wedge itself into a working party due to the seniors. Especially with the onslaught of BJP and AAP. But things may go awry following the 'analyst' concept that has been ushered into the ranks.

Congress is basically a 'High Command' governed party. It is archaic but the top-down model of leadership had made the party survive so long and became one of the oldest political parties in the world. But turning it into a cadre-based party may not be so easy despite the entry of hotshot political analyst Prashanth Kishore. The state party unit that has so many old-time politicians may not accept the 'command' of the party going from the Gandhi-Nehru family to a professionally managed electoral analyst. It is not to the liking of many leaders, at least in Karnataka.

The first tremors of this paradigm shift of the party from High Command to the new advisory board that the party is thinking of have been felt in Karnataka. The in-charge general secretary of Karnataka Randeep Surjewala's frequent visits to Karnataka has already set the vibrations and like a true Congressman, he has taken steps to nail in the 'concept' of analysis into the state leadership. The TMC experience in West Bengal is one such example.

Karnataka also has one of the largest populations of senior politicians. Currently, there are very miffed second-line leaders who want bigger roles in the party as well as in the government if Congress can manage to form in the 2023 elections. But then what is the criterion for choosing the age? Most of the existing top leaders are above 70. Mallikarjun Kharge, S Siddaramiah, R V Deshpande, Shamanuru Shivashankarappa, HK Patil, and many more. Most of them have no more steam left in them and they should make way for the entry of second-line leaders who are not getting any younger. DK Shivakumar, Manjunath Bhandary, PV Mohan, SS Mallikarjun, UT Khader and many more are ready to take up more responsibility.

According to Congress second-line leaders who wished for anonymity have indicated that the inclusion of a new analyst angle to the party organisation will work only if the Congress sheds deadwood on a national scale and make it a cadre-based party in a phased manner in the run-up to State Assembly elections and Lok Sabha elections in 2023-2024 respectively.

How will the entry of Prashanth Kishor do or undo things for the party? When asked the leaders opined that the party is now looking for numbers, if the analysis helps the party to gain a few more seats on a pan India level that is not sufficient, it must help the party substantially to win more seats in Lok Sabha and get the party into power in Karnataka and later work on the college of electors for the Rajya Sabha where the Congress is also losing badly in numbers.

That means the party will have to look at the grassroots like the entire range of Panchayat-level organisations and Urban Local Bodies that include city corporations like Bengaluru, Mangaluru, Mysuru, Hubli-Dharwad, Shivamogga, Ballari and Belagavi.