Digvijaya Singh: "Some doubts within the Congress Regarding Prashant Kishor, but..."

Digvijaya Singh, a senior Congress leader, said to NDTV today that Prashant Kishor's analysis of the Congress is "impressive" and there is no internal opposition to him joining the party.

In describing Prashant Kishor's analysis of Congress' decline and the roadmap for the party's revival as impressive, Digvijaya Singh said: "He is a statistics man. There is nothing very new, nothing that we did not know. There is no resistance to having him in the party, people are receptive. The only question is of how you present an issue and how the party picks up those issues."

A number of Congress leaders are reluctant to give Prashant Kishor a party position, including Mr Singh.

According to the Congress leader,"I have had a very close association with him. I have had intense interactions with him. He is a political analyst. His journey has been from one party to the other. The kind of political commitment or the ideological commitment is not obvious. But now that he has come forward with concrete suggestions and the presentation he has put up is quite good."

In response to question, Was there apprehension among PK's friends over his past associations with the BJP, Mr Singh said "He is working with Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal, with Jagan (Mohan Reddy) in Andhra Pradesh and DMK in Tamil Nadu. The Congress is such a large party that there would be some doubts about PK but at the same time, we have an open mind."

He is not opposed to joining, and his analysis is impressive, Mr Singh added, but it was Sonia Gandhi's decision regarding his induction.

Last week, during Prashant Kishor's meeting with Sonia Gandhi and her children Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, he presented a revival plan for the Congress and a strategy to win upcoming election results as well as the general election in 2024.

Upon being asked whether a non-Gandhi Working President was a viable option for the Congress, Mr Singh stated "there is no such thing as a working president".

Mr. Singh replied that anyone can file their nomination for the election of national president. However, he added, "A majority of Congressmen... since 1969, every split has supported the Nehru-Gandhi family."

Rahul Gandhi, Mr Singh said, had all the traits to lead the Congress. He disagreed with the impression that Rahul Gandhi is a "reluctant politician".