Poll strategist Prashant Kishor declines offer to join Cong as part of Empowered Action Group
New Delhi(PTI): Congress president Sonia Gandhi had invited poll strategist Prashant Kishor to join the party and be a part of its 'Empowered Action Group-2024' to evolve a strategy for the general elections but he has declined the offer, the party said.
Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said on Tuesday that the party appreciates his efforts and suggestions.
Kishor was keen to join the Congress and had desired to do so without any expectations. He had also made a presentation to the party on which its top leaders deliberated upon during the last week.
"Following a presentation and discussions with Prashant Kishor, the Congress president constituted the Empowered Action Group-2024 and invited him to join the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. He declined. We appreciate his efforts and suggestions given to the party," Surjewala said on Twitter.
Sources said the reason for his not joining the Congress was the pact signed by his company I-PAC with TRS for the Telangana assembly elections and that was viewed by the Congress leadership as conflict of interest.
Kishor has been engaged by Mamata Banerjee's TMC in West Bengal as well as Nitish Kumar's JD-U in Bihar for election management.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
