Election strategist Prashant Kishor held a marathon meeting with Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao to discuss the possibility of the former’s Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) working with the TRS in the State till the Assembly elections, which are due next year.
Mr. Kishor arrived at Mr. Rao’s camp office for consultations on Saturday morning and stay put there overnight to continue the discussions until the latter left for his farmhouse on Sunday evening.
Sources said Mr. Kishor and Mr. Rao agreed it was left to the former if he wanted to join the Congress to play a role in dislodging the BJP at the national-level but the TRS will continue to work with I-PAC in extending services of surveys on public opinion about development and welfare programmes of the State government and impressing first-time voters. The IPAC was already said to have carried out surveys on the position of TRS and government in all Assembly constituencies and submitted reports to Mr. Rao.
The two-day camp of Mr. Kishor in the city assumed significance in the background of a series of meetings that he has already held with Congress leadership, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, recently amidst strong indications that he was likely to join the party. Mr. Kishor and film star Prakash Raj had already met Mr. Rao to discuss an alliance of non-BJP parties. Both of them also visited Gajwel constituency represented by Mr. Rao to study the developmental programmes.
Mr. Rao later told a press conference that he was in touch with Mr. Kishor for a long time and that he was keen to access the app based data analysis of the latter to enhance the party’s prospects.
