KT Rama Rao, son of Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, today ridiculed the Congress and questioned why election strategist Prashant would wish to join it. Mr Rao senior has signed up with IPAC, the organisation Mr Kishor led for years, yesterday setting off speculation on whether it put brakes on the election strategist's ongoing negotiations with the Congress.
Asked if there might be a conflict of interest in Mr Kishor's negotiations with the Congress, Mr KT Rama Rao told NDTV, "Firstly I don't know if the Congress can be taken seriously anywhere in the country".
The party, he said, has not had a "single course correction in the last three years" despite their string of defeats.
Rahul Gandhi, he pointed out, lost his family stronghold Amethi to the BJP in 2019 and in the recent assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh, the Congress has failed to win a single seat under the parliamentary constituency.
Asked about Mr Kishor, whom his father has described as his "best friend", making multiple presentations to the Congress on the rejuvenation of the 137-year-old party, Mr Rao said, "PK is latching onto a sick unit. That's what's happening. Do not attach too much importance to it".
Then he added, "As a strategist looking at the scenario from outside, he may have his opinion. My opinion is that the Congress is a redundant institution".
Mr Kishor, who has officially delinked himself from IPAC but is still hyphenated with it -- had spent the weekend in Hyderabad closeted with the Chief Minister.
The meeting is likely to have upset a section in the Congress, which is uncomfortable with Mr Kishor's professional and personal links with regional parties – the ones they clearly regard as the enemy camp.
Mr Kishor has been political advisor to Trinamool Congress chief and Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Jagan Mohan Reddy, the chief of YSR Congress. Both parties are old rivals of the Congress in the states.
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