Prashant Kishor moots non-Gandhi as Congress president

Express News Service

NEW DELHI:  Election strategist Prashant Kishor has requested the Congress management to elect a non-Gandhi as get together president whereas leaving the three necessary posts of UPA Chairman, parliamentary board chief and normal secretary coordination for Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, respectively.

In his presentation to the Congress management, Kishor urged forming of a shadow Cabinet with 20-25 skilled and new politicians and a mind belief of 10-12 SMEs and world authorities “to effectively represent the voice of the people both in Parliament and outside”. This, he mentioned, would go a good distance in countering “elected autocracy” with “collective credibility”.

The strategist mentioned the “traditional media is heavily biased towards the ruling party” and the “current dispensation’s vast network combines the resources of government and party to maintain news stranglehold”. He additionally mentioned that “timing and choice of propagation for INC is lopsided and not driven by data or science.” He urged creating “a network of ideologically inclined digital supporters divided into 543 digital zones, each with an ecosystem of approximately five lakh digitally connected people”.

Under the title of “winning arithmetic,” he mentioned to win the final elections 45% of votes forged or 30 crore votes are wanted. He centered on eight key teams of inhabitants to win these votes from “core supporters”: girls, farmers, youth, SC, ST, landless labourers, center class and concrete poor. The get together, he urged, ought to use the theme of “Gandhi, Truth, Bharosa versus Godse, Jhooth, Jhansa”. To tackle Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he mentioned the Congress might expose “the true character and failures of Modi” and use slogans like “hanikarak Modi” and “Modi jaane wale hain”.

Kishor mentioned the get together mustn’t give ticket or organisational posts to these dealing with costs of heinous crimes, and strictly implement the precept of one-man-one-post. Critiquing the “jaded and aged leadership,” he mentioned it had “complete disconnect with the grassroots” and the get together had “ceased working as a democratic organization” below them. He highlighted the sense of entitlement and sycophancy within the get together and mentioned solely 23 out of 118 central leaders of the get together are elected. 

Six factors of Shiva Tandav in PK components

Yet, the Congress continues to be a “formidable political force” with 90 MPs (Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha) and 800 MLAs despite the truth that it has “faced a steep fall from erstwhile hegemony”. He mentioned the get together remained second in 209 parliamentary constituencies in 2019 and got here second in 1,072 meeting seats within the state elections between 2016-2021.

Kishor used the image of Nataraj (the dancing Shiva) and the six points of Shiva Tandav specifically Shrishti (creation), Stithi (safety), Anugrah (liberation), Sanhar (destruction), Tirobhav (concealment) and Upsmar (join) to put the roadmap for the get together’s “reincarnation”. He mentioned the get together must “preserve its soul” and “create a new body”.

These six foundational resolves comprise creating a brand new Congress which might turn out to be a alternative of the plenty, defending the get together’s legacy values and core rules, liberation from inertia, mediocrity and establishment, destroying sense of entitlement, lack of accountability and sycophancy, concealing the immutable baggage of nepotism and corruption.

He mentioned the get together must take 5 strategic selections to kick-start the method of reincarnation. These are: Fix the management difficulty, remedy the alliance conundrum, reclaim the get together’s founding tenets, create a military of grassroots leaders and foot troopers, and an ecosystem of supportive media and digital propagation.

Kishor mentioned Congress management doesn’t seem aligned by way of targets, technique, methodology, method, techniques and the way in which ahead, resulting in a scarcity of cohesion, at occasions confusion and stalemate. He didn’t mince phrases as his presentation contained stark figures reflecting the get together’s “perpetual decline since 1985”. It confirmed the regular fall in vote share and the variety of seats gained in Parliament and state assemblies.

He mentioned the get together carried out significantly poorly when it was in direct contest with BJP. He mentioned in 2019, Congress misplaced 92% of Lok Sabha seats the place it was in direct contest with BJP, in comparison with 90% comparable seats in 2014. He highlighted three doable causes for the get together’s electoral decline: pure drawback of being legacy incumbent; 4 durations of organised mass dissent; and failure to capitalise on legacy and achievements.

Describing the Legacy Incumbency Disadvantage, he mentioned 75 years after Independence, there are nonetheless 55 crore individuals who survive on lower than Rs 100 per day of revenue, 20 crore sleep hungry, 17 lakh are homeless and 16 crore haven’t any entry to scrub consuming water. India additionally ranks poorly on key world indices: 102nd on Global Hunger Index, 145th on healthcare entry and a hundred and twentieth on human growth index.

Going into the historical past of Congress’ decline, he mentioned 4 mass actions – JP Movement, Bofors, Mandal, Ram Mandir and the rise of Modi and India Against Corruption — dented its prospects and triggered a fall in voteshare.

He identified the get together’s failure to capitalise on its legacy and the achievements of its governments. He mentioned the primary prime minister belonging to the get together — Jawaharlal Nehru — was the architect of recent India who gave us parliamentary democracy; Indira created Bangladesh, abolished privy purse and nationalised banks; Rajiv Gandhi introduced the telecom revolution and ushered within the panchayati raj system; Narasimha Rao introduced financial liberalisation and mid-day meal, Manmohan Singh’s time period was probably the most affluent decade in India and he introduced in rights-based legislations reminiscent of RTIRTI , RTRTE, and many others.

He highlighted India’s development story below Congress from 1952 to 2014. He mentioned the per capita revenue has grown from Rs 1,492 to Rs 96,563 on this interval, and life expectancy elevated from 32 to 68.02 years between 1952 and 2014.

Rajasthan Congress to have brainstorming session in Udaipur
On a day Sachin Pilot met Sonia Gandhi and sought to know his future function in Rajasthan, Congress sources mentioned the get together would maintain a three-day brainstorming session (Chintan Shivir) starting May 13 in Udaipur for Assembly polls due in some states later this yr in addition to Lok Sabha elections in 2024. All get together MPs, MLAs, office-bearers and allied organizations will talk about and put together a method for Mission 2024, get together sources mentioned. In 2013, Rahul Gandhi turned the get together’s vice chairman in the course of the Jaipur Chintan Shivir.

On comparable traces, the get together expects main selections in the course of the May Chintan Shivir. Besides Congress, Working Committee members and veterans, Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi will attend the camp. Apart from reviewing the get together’s latest defeats within the polls in 5 states, the technique for upcoming elections, together with in Gujarat, can be mentioned. Party’s organizational modifications can even be taken up. Party sources mentioned discussions would centre on taking Congress out of the transition state and determine modifications to be made within the administration of the get together given the rising political state of affairs within the nation. “The aim will be to combat the BJP’s special strategy for election campaigns,” mentioned a supply.

Showing a mirror to the get together
Kishor mentioned between 1885 and 1998, the get together had 61 presidents, whereas between 1998 and 2022, the get together has had solely two presidents (Sonia 21 years and Rahul 2 years). He identified that greater than 65% district presidents and 90% block presidents haven’t ever had a gathering with the Congress president and even the AICC secretary

Last huge marketing campaign
The final mass public outreach marketing campaign by the Congress was Rajiv Gandhi’s Bharat Yatra in 1990. The get together has not undertaken any “pan-India protest or agitational campaign that has lasted for more than 24 hours since 2014,” he added