Congress likely to meet today to decide PKs role

New Delhi, April 25

The Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi on Monday is likely to hold consultation with senior leaders on the role of political strategist Prashant Kishor in the party.

The group, which was constituted to discuss the issue, submitted its report last week.

The Congress wants Kishor to end his previous commitments made to other parties and work solely as a Congressman and not as a consultant. The final decision may be taken after talks with Rahul Gandhi.

The state units are pitched against regional parties in West Bengal, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. Hence, it does not want Kishor to have any truck with the regional parties.

The party leaders, who have submitted their report on the issue, admit that there is no harm in the political strategist joining the party but there should be no conflict wherever the party is pitched against regional forces.

Meanwhile, Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) on Sunday signed a deal with Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC) founded by the election strategist Kishor.

During an interaction with a select group of journalists, TRS Working President K.T. Rama Rao confirmed that his party is working with I-PAC, but claimed that this has nothing to do with Kishor. "PK (as Kishor is popularly known) is the founder, but I don't know who is running it. PK introduced us to I-PAC and it is working with us," he said.

He said PK has disassociated himself from I-PAC, which is working with multiple parties across the country. "It's not just PK we had interactions with. We had multiple iterations of discussions with several others. We spoke to Sunil and others. I-PAC is what we narrowed down to."

The TRS leader, however, was evasive on whether the agreement is only for 2023 Assembly polls or 2024 Lok Sabha elections as well as the nature of discussions they are holding with PK. "If a gentleman who is into politics, who is into advisory or helpful roles in other places, offers you some inputs, would you not take them?" he asked.