Rahul Gandhi Predicted Prashant Kishor's Refusal On Day One: Sources

Rahul Gandhi had "on Day One" predicted that Prashant Kishor won't join the Congress and many leaders felt that the strategist wanted to "use the Congress" for leverage with other parties, party sources said Wednesday. The doubts and misgivings were mutual, countered sources close to Prashant Kishor.

Prashant Kishor, or PK, was offered the functional responsibility of election management in the Empowered Congress Committee two days ago. He rejected the offer Tuesday.

"The offer to PK to join the Congress was made day before yesterday. He said no. We don't know why," senior leader P Chidambaram, who was part of a group tasked with reviewing Prashant Kishor's Congress revival plan, told NDTV.

PK wanted to be either political secretary to the Congress president or Vice President, sources said.

"Rahul Gandhi on Day One itself said PK will not join, this is not the first time he was offered a spot in the party," said sources. In fact, some suggested it was the eighth time that the strategist had held talks to join the Congress.

It was PK who sought out Congress leaders and asked for a meeting to make his presentation on a roadmap to resurrect the grand old party, said the sources.

With Rahul Gandhi appearing cold to his overtures, PK reportedly insisted on meeting with Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

"Various Congress leaders in the committee gave serious thought to his proposals but were wary of PK," they said. Two Chief Ministers were also asked to hold discussions with him.

Many in the group assessing PK's proposal felt he was not reliable and planned to use the Congress platform while continuing to work with other parties.

In order to distance himself from his group I-PAC and tackle questions about whether he would maintain his exclusivity with the Congress, Prashant Kishor said he is "not a major shareholder of IPAC" and that the group would not do anything that "I tell them not to".

Sources close to Prashant Kishor claim he had deep doubts about how invested the Congress leadership is in tough decisions to revive the party. They said he didn't feel the Congress and its leadership were invested enough, even though they appeared to support his plans.

Rahul Gandhi's foreign trip at this time reinforced that doubt. Instead of a "hands-on approach", Rahul Gandhi, one of the top decision-makers of the Congress, appeared "aloof" and hardly attended any meeting, said sources close to PK. He chose to go on his scheduled trip abroad when he could have deferred it for the party's moment of reckoning

Rahul Gandhi's perceived detachment contrasted with Priyanka Gandhi's presence in every meeting, but that wasn't enough, said sources. Sonia Gandhi, the Congress president, was also present throughout the deliberations. Even Priyanka Gandhi was in two minds, given the party's history with PK in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh election, which it lost.

One of the big sticking points in the Congress-PK talks was the party's insistence of incremental changes as opposed to Big Bang reforms that could upset many leaders. Prashant Kishor, says sources, was also not willing to settle for membership of a committee. The ace strategist, who was used to being in direct touch with people like Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar and Amarinder Singh in the past, wanted direct access to Sonia Gandhi and a free hand to implement his plans for India's oldest party.