Prashant Kishor to report to PCC Chiefs of Punjab and UP

NEW DELHI: 'Election strategist' Prashant Kishor, now roped in to help the Congress in its electoral battles in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, will report to the respective PCC presidents of both states and not to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Understanding and adjusting to the organisational protocol and ground rules of the monolithic Congress will be a new experience for Kishor, after his experiences of reporting/coordinating directly with the top bosses — Narendra Modi during the Lok Sabha polls and Nitish Kumar in the Bihar assembly polls — of the Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal (United) The AICC has also made it clear that Kishor will only have an advisory role with the Punjab and UP Congress and that he will not interfere with candidates’ selection.

“Prashant Kishor who will be assisting the assembly election preparations of Congress in Punjab will give his inputs to PCC president to whom he will report. There is no question of Kishor bypassing the PCC leadership and reporting directly to Rahul Gandhi. He will function only in an advisory role and will not interfere with candidates’ selection in the state,” AICC general secretary incharge of Punjab, Shakeel Ahmad, told ET. This makes it clear that Punjab PCC chief Captain Amarinder Singh will be the boss of Kishor in Punjab. He will also be required to interact with the AICC general secretaries in-charge of the states whenever needed.

The same will be the arrangement in UP, where Nirmal Khatri and Madhusudan Mistry are PCC president and AICC general secretary incharge, respectively. The meeting of the UP Congress leaders held in Lucknow on Thursday where Khatri, Mistry and Kishor attended was meant to drive home the functional ground-rule, a source said.