Congress, Kishor break up yet again; Is it curtains on their hate-love relationship now?

The Congress party and poll strategist Prashant Kishor have called it quits, yet again. The two sides took to Twitter to announce their divorce after their second spell of courtship.

The proposed marriage was called off after Kishor declined Congress president Sonia Gandhi's offer to join the grand old party as a member of the ‘Empowered Action Group 2024’, a panel set up to formulate campaign strategy for the next Lok Sabha elections, with defined responsibility.

Apparently, he was offered the post of a general secretary but he wanted to be the vice-president and had set a condition that he would report only to the Congress chief.

The announcements came a day after the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), founded by Kishor, sealed the deal with the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) of chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao or KCR, an arch-rival of the Congress in Telangana.

This development came amid discussions between Kishor and the Congress leadership over his plan to revive the grand old party and also on his role in the organisation.

For the past few weeks, it was all about Kishor for he had grabbed all the media headlines with stories being planted on how he plans to revive a much-weakened Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections and the post he has sought.

About nine months ago, Kishor had for the first time expressed his desire to join the Congress. But there was a lot of resistance from some senior leaders who told both Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra that Kishor is a “trojan horse” who will be of no benefit to the party but would instead build his career in politics.

After he failed to get an entry into the Congress, Kishor went all guns blazing against the Gandhis, and even persuaded Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to venture into Goa. The Trinamool Congress ended up hurting the prospects of the Congress by dividing the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) votes.

Kishor has so far been successful only with those who were very strong and certain to win - be it Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Arvind Kejriwal, Jaganmohan Reddy, MK Stalin, Captain Amarinder Singh, Mamata Banerjee, Nitish Kumar and so on. As is said in political circles, he places his bet only on the winning horses.

However, Kishor failed miserably in helping the Congress-Samajwadi Party alliance in the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections or guiding then Uttarakhand chief minister Harish Rawat in retaining power in the hill state the same year.

Kishor’s deal with the TRS had not gone down well with many Congress leaders, including party’s Telangana in-charge Manickam Tagore. “Is it correct? Never trust someone who is friends with your enemy,” he tweeted soon after TRS Working President KT Rama Rao announced the deal between his party and the I-PAC.

A section in the Congress was quick to point out a statement by Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar who while removing Kishor from the post of the Janata Dal (United) vice-president had claimed that it was Amit Shah who had recommended the poll strategist for induction in his party.

For Kishor, this bitter ending with the Congress for the second time can be summarised as: “Twice bitten, not yet shy”.

However, it remains to be seen if Kishor will yet again try to damage Congress as he did the last time.