A day after Prashant Kishor apparently targeted Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader Salman Khurshid on Friday hit out at the poll strategist.
Taking to Twitter, Khurshid said: “PK has curious take on democracy. He uses divinity to question democratic choice of Congress workers. This tells us that copy book wisdom about politics does not factor human conduct. Politics is not ONLY about winning elections. But how does commerce know?”
This may be noted that Kishor had, in an apparent swipe at Rahul Gandhi, said that no individual has the “divine right” to leadership.
In a tweet, Kishor said, “The IDEA and SPACE that #Congress represents is vital for a strong opposition. But Congress’ leadership is not the DIVINE RIGHT of an individual especially, when the party has lost more than 90% elections in last 10 years.”
“Let opposition leadership be decided Democratically,” he added.
To this, Khurshid said: “Lesson for PK: Divinity is about Faith. Democracy is about faith. Other people cannot write the script for democratic choice. If democratic choice not understood go back to school and begin afresh. Perhaps differentiating Faith and faith will answer BJP”.
Congress spokesperson Pawan Khera had also hit out at Prashant Kishor, saying: “The individual being discussed here is pursuing his Divine Duty to struggle and save Indian democracy from the RSS. A professional without ideological commitment is free to advice parties/individuals on how to contest elections but he cannot set the agenda of our politics.”
Currently working for Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, Kishor has been critical of the Congress and the Gandhis especially, for some time.
Several Congress members have shifted to the TMC ahead of the Goa Assembly Elections and in some northeast states. Ten Congress MLAs in Meghalaya joined the Trinamool party recently, making it the main opposition in the state instead of the Congress.
Mamata Banerjee, the leader of the Trinamool Congress, is working to expand her influence beyond West Bengal, claiming to unite the opposition and lead them. As part of her quest to form a truly formidable alliance without the Congress, she recently met with opposition leaders, including Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar in Mumbai.