No individual is bigger than the party but the Congress always keeps its doors and windows open, said spokesperson Pawan Khera on Wednesday as the break–up between election strategist Prashant Kishor and the grand old party continued to dominate the headlines.
“The doors and windows of the Congress are always open. If you give suggestions, it will be open for you as well,” Mr. Khera told reporters when asked if Mr. Kishor’s possible entry into the Congress was a closed chapter.
While the Congress officially tried to play down the poll strategist’s refusal to join the party, several fresh details were leaked by Congress functionaries on what could have led to the break–up.
To begin with, a Congress functionary claimed Mr. Kishor’s demand that he would report only to the Congress president was a big stumbling point. Though the party leaders were impressed with his data about voting and voters’ preference at the both level, his insistence on having a team of 5,000 support staff that would only report to him and leading negotiations with potential allies were also irritants.
The leader claimed that the strategist advised that the party should not look for alliances with parties like the Rashtriya Janata Dal, the Samajwadi party, the Shiv Sena and the NCP but suggested not to contest against other regional players like the Trinamool, with whom his firm Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) has a tie–up.
So far, Mr. Kishor has not made any statement except a tweet on Tuesday in which he said “more than him the Congress needs leadership and the will to carry out transformational reforms to fix deep rooted problems”.
