Citing Gandhi’s decision to resign as the Congress president following the party’s drubbing in the 2019 polls, he said the Wayanad MP had then written that he would step back and let somebody else do the job. But, in effect, he has been doing contrary to what he had written, he added.Many Congress leaders will admit privately that they cannot take any decision in the party, even about a single seat or seat sharing with alliance partners “unless they get the approval from xyz,” he said, referring to their need to defer to Rahul Gandhi.However, a section of Congress leaders also privately say the situation is in fact the opposite and Rahul Gandhi does not take decisions, which they wish he would.Kishore said the Congress and its supporters are bigger than any individual and Gandhi should not be stubborn that it must be him who will deliver for the party despite repeated failures.Questioning the former Congress president’s contention that his party has been facing poll setbacks because institutions like the Election Commission, judiciary and the media have been compromised, he said this may be partly true but is not the complete truth.The Congress, he noted, was reduced from 206 seats to 44 in the 2014 polls when it was in power and the BJP had little influence over various institutions.The ace strategist, who has been associated with successful poll campaigns of several major parties, however, emphasised that the main opposition party suffers from “structural” flaws in its functioning and addressing them is essential for its success.The Congress has been in a secular decline since 1984 in terms of its vote share and Lok Sabha and assembly seats and this is not about individuals, he said.Asked about his view on the claims that the party is in a terminal decline, Kishor refuted such a claim saying those saying so do not understand the country’s politics. Such an assertion is nothing more than solganeering, he said.”The Congress should not be merely seen as a party. The space it represents in the country can never be finished off. It is not possible. The Congress has evolved and reincarnated itself several times in its history,” he said.The last time it did so was when Sonia Gandhi took over and plotted its return to power in the 2004 polls, he added.
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