New Delhi: Congress chief Sonia Gandhi was "very keen" to involve Prashant Kishor in working out a strategy for the party even about a couple of months ago but the matter was "again delayed", senior Congress leader M Veerappa Moily said on Tuesday and advocated that the poll strategist be inducted into the party now.
The former Union minister said it is "quite heartening" to see that Gandhi has taken up the initiative to involve Kishor to come out with a strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, the party's revival plan and the strategy for the assembly elections in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and Telangana in 2022-2023.
Moily also pitched for a "UPA-III", claiming that almost all regional parties are geared up to fight against the BJP and feel strongly that the Congress should again emerge as a strong force to bind the nationalistic forces.
"I was really looking forward for working out a strategy to prepare the Congress party for the upcoming assembly elections in 2023 and the Lok Sabha elections of 2024. In fact, she (Sonia Gandhi) was very keen to involve Prashant Kishor for working out a strategy for the Congress party about a couple of months back. But for some reasons the matter was again delayed," Moily said.
"I had already addressed a letter to the Congress president on April 5, 2022, with appropriate strategy to take the agenda of INC forward, by taking into confidence other secular forces/parties and also a special note for Karnataka. The Congress president has acknowledged the said note," he said.
Moily said he had met Kishor on March 25 and discussed with him his involvement in the Congress for working out a strategy for assembly elections of 2023 and also the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.