NEW DELHI: Days after Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut claimed that opposition cannot be effective without Congress, ace poll strategist Prashant Kishor predicted the strong possibility of the emergence of a new anti-BJP opposition alliance excluding the Congress for 2024 Lok Sabha elections, comprising the Trinamool Congress (TMC), NCP and other like-minded parties.
He said an alliance between parties like the TMC, NCP and the likes could emerge as a formidable alternative to the Congress in opposition.
Speaking to a private news channel, Prashant Kishor, who is said to be assisting the TMC in the background, said people come and join a party only if they see hope and the possibility of positive developments.
Taking an indirect jibe at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Kishor said the BJP cannot be defeated only by taking out a candle march or making a series of tweets.
He again stated that Congress can be saved by its leaders only after they democratically elect the national president.
Kishor added that the Congress party had only 4% of striking rate on the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and since 1984, this party has not won even a single general election in the country.
He also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying Modi’s greatest strength is listening to the people and knowing what they want.
He said the politics in the country will revolve around the BJP for the next few decades and only a formidable opposition with the right issues and narratives can challenge the BJP.
He also claimed the Congress party’s decline in national politics is not temporary and that there is a need to re-look at the formation of UPA ahead of next the Lok Sabha elections.
He candidly admitted that an alternative to the Congress-led UAP is possible, but trying to find out if that would be competent enough to lead the opposition is now an unnecessary exercise.
According to him, if the issues are right and the right narratives are set by the opposition, the BJP can be challenged.
Earlier, Prashant Kishor had attacked the Congress Party’s central leadership-read Sonia Gandhi, through a tweet adding that the IDEA and the SPACE that Congress represents is vital for a strong opposition. “But the Congress’s leadership is not the DIVINE RIGHT of an individual, especially, when the party has lost more than 90% elections in last 10 years”, he had tweeted.
On being asked who takes the final decision in the TMC, Kishor said that it is Didi (Mamata Banerjee) who used to run the party.