Prospect of Prashant Kishor with Congress unsettles TRS

TRS working president K T Rama Rao told reporters that the party has hired I-PAC but was quick to add that Kishore is 'maintaining distance'

As the ground is prepared for the induction of political strategist Prashant Kishor into the Congress party, his association with the ruling TRS in Telangana is in question.

In March, TRS chief and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao confirmed that he is working with Kishor “to affect a shift in the nation's politics".

Rao had recently renewed his idea of a "federal front" — a coalition of non-BJP, non-Congress parties — at the national level, which also suits his interests back home. Both, the Congress and the BJP are his rivals in Telangana.

Also Read | 'Doctor' PK to Congress' aid: Contradictions and coherence

But now, as Kishor is reportedly moving into the Congress fold, the move has the TRS leadership concerned.

Amid the speculations, Prashant spent the entire Saturday and Sunday in Hyderabad "brainstorming" with KCR and other leaders on the course the party should take to complete a hat-trick in the state in the 2023 Assembly elections.

The TRS also wants to win the maximum possible seats of Telangana's 17 Lok Sabha seats in 2024, to stay relevant in the national picture. Its tally had reduced to nine in the 2019 polls.

TRS working president K T Rama Rao has told reporters that the party has hired I-PAC but was quick to add that Kishore is “maintaining distance” from the election campaign strategy group founded by him.

"Our association would be with I-PAC, not PK," KTR asserted while observing that PK is free to pursue his political interests.

A formal deal of an undisclosed amount was arrived at between the TRS and I-PAC on Sunday, under which the agency would conduct surveys, devise public outreach campaigns, expand the TRS's social-digital campaign especially to attract the younger lot in time for the 2023 Assembly polls.

But analysts doubt if the I-PAC, whose identity is synonymous with Kishor, could be totally free of his influence.

In the event of Kishor joining the Congress and the buzz that he would attempt to bring the TRS close to the grand old party, the "link" could come in handy for the BJP, which is vying to come to power in 2023.

“KCR has been supportive of the Congress leadership. He defended Rahul Gandhi when he asked for surgical strike proofs. Now, the PK link between the TRS and Congress yet again proves their unholy nexus which we will expose before the public,” Ramchander Rao, a senior BJP leader told DH.

Check out latest DH videos here