‘Old Wine, Old Friends’: Sidhu Shares Photo With Prashant Kishor Moments After He Refused to Join Congress

Hours after poll strategist Prashant Kishor declined an offer by the Congress to join the party, he met former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu on Tuesday. The Congress leader tweeted a picture of the meeting, calling Kishor an “old friend”.

About Kishor, Sidhu said “old friends are the best”. “Had a wonderful meeting with my old friend PK Old wine, Old gold and Old friends still the best!!!” he said.

Earlier in the day, Kishor declined the Congress offer to be a part of its empowered action group for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. He said more than him, the Congress needed “leadership and collective will” to fix deep-rooted structural problems through reforms.

After weeks of build-up and buzz around him joining the grand old party, the poll strategist declined the offer. Both the Congress as well as Kishor confirmed the same on Twitter.

Kishor has been engaged with the Congress for bringing changes and evolving the party’s strategy for upcoming elections and had made a detailed presentation on his plan to top party leaders.

Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior party leaders were present at the four-hour meeting last Saturday at the Congress president’s 10, Janpath residence that discussed the party’s strategy for the upcoming assembly polls and the next Lok Sabha election. According to sources, Kishor had told the select gathering that he was ready to join the Congress “without any expectations” and does not want anything but his plan should be implemented to help strengthen the party at the grassroots level.

Venugopal had told reporters after the meeting that a group would be set up to discuss the suggestions.

Sources told News18 that Kishor wanted to be given a free hand in the Congress, which he got in the Trinamool Congress. But after a series of internal meetings, Kishor felt that will not be possible, sources added.

While the Congress was mulling bringing Kishor on board, a section of veterans had been thinking twice about his entry, given his association with several political outfits that are pitted against the Congress. Even the dissident group in the party, popularly known as G23, was not too impressed with the idea of Kishor’s induction as they said the leadership was overlooking and ignoring in-house talent and relying on somebody who is not loyal to the party and is a professional consultant.

(With PTI inputs)

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