Congress' Veerappa Moily backs Prashant Kishor's inclusion in party despite G23 reluctance

Amid speculation that the G23 leaders are opposing poll strategist Prashant Kishor's entry into Congress, senior party leader Veerappa Moily backed him. Speaking to the media on Monday, Moily who was one of the 23 leaders who sought an overhaul of Congress last year asserted that Kishor will not only strengthen the hands of the party leadership but also motivate the cadres. Highlighting Kishor's success in his capacity as the Indian Political Action Committee co-founder, he linked the party's political future to the strength of the cadres. 

Former Union Minister Veerappa Moily remarked, "Prashant Kishor coming in with us to help us.  He will strengthen Sonia Gandhi's hands and strengthen the cadres. Prashant Kishor is a success story, he is not coming as an experiment. He can bring success, motivation and enlighten the cadre. Cadre building is important for Congress. Cadre is the real asset. Congress has history but it emerged because of the power of cadre, strength and dedicated cadres."

Rumour mills were abuzz about Kishor's future after his meetings with NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and Rahul Gandhi. Indirectly hinting that Congress had the most crucial role in the fight against BJP for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, he told Republic TV, "Front formed by few parties not enough to beat Modi. All third and fourth fronts are futile exercises against Modi". As per sources, Congress president Sonia Gandhi will take the final call on the poll strategist's induction into the party. 

Prashant Kishor's pan-party influence

After gaining acclaim owing to his crucial role in BJP winning a majority on its own in the 2014 General election, Kishor's IPAC has run successful campaigns for AAP (2015 Delhi Assembly election), Mahagatbandhan (2015 Bihar Assembly election), Congress (2017 Punjab Assembly election), YSCRP (Andhra Pradesh Assembly election), DMK (Tamil Nadu Assembly election) and TMC (West Bengal Assembly election). However, he failed to propel the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance to victory in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh polls. On March 1, Prashant Kishor was appointed as Punjab CM Amarinder Singh's Principal Advisor.

According to sources, the poll strategist was tasked Congress' election campaign for the Punjab Assembly election due next year. The IPAC co-founder was provided one private secretary, one personal assistant, one data entry operator, one clerk, two peons, a free fully furnished government residence and a camp office as admissible to a Cabinet Minister.  However, he decided to quit the political strategy space after the West Bengal Assembly polls. On August 5, Kishor resigned as the Punjab CM's Principal Advisor citing that he wanted to take a "temporary break" from an active role in public life.