KCR claimed Prashanth Kishore is his best friend. Do PK’s recent moves indicate a possible TRS-Congress informal alliance?

 The following article was written for MyInd Makers. Pasting it here for reference:

Prashanth Kishore (PK) recently met Sonia Gandhi, her children, and some other Congress party leaders for nearly 3 hours. As usual, through sources, we came to know that PK presented a strategy to this group – a strategy that included going alone in certain states and allying in certain other states. What immediately stuck to me was that, in this source-based information, Telangana was not included in neither group!

Recently in one of his press conferences, the Chief Minister of Telangana praised PK to the hilt. KCR told us that PK has never taken a single rupee for the work he has done so far; that PK is his best friend for the last 7-8 years; and that PK will be helping TRS for the 2023 elections. PK, meanwhile, in his other interviews elsewhere has told us that he has spent every minute of nearly 6 months, last year, to work to make Congress stronger.

KCR who started his national ambition by claiming that both Congress and BJP need to go away as national parties has off late aimed his bullets at only the BJP. He has called for BJP-mukt Bharat; has used foul and abominal language while addressing BJP leaders and central ministers; has shown huge disrespect to the Governor of Telangana; has taken more offense than the Congress party has, for Himanta Biswas Sarma’s comments on Rahul Gandhi; and neither he nor any of his family members have taken any umbrage at the Congress party in recent times.

This sudden ignoring of the Congress party is strange though – the PCC chief and KCR’s family don’t get along well at all. Infact, the PCC chief’s verbal attacks on KCR’s family have often created controversies in the state too. It’s also not that the Congress is a spent force in Telangana – they still are strong in certain pockets of the state.

Does PK’s meeting with KCR have anything to do with this? Is some strategy brewing up where there will be no formal alliance but there will be an informal understanding between Congress and TRS for the 2023 elections? Because, if there is a formal alliance between the TRS, Congress and the MIM – then it is simply game over for KCR – the people of Telangana will never accept an alliance between the TRS and Congress. But if there is an informal understanding between TRS and Congress in such a manner that the TRS can cross the 60-seat mark (infact, TRS just has to cross 54-seat mark because MIM will win 7 seats and will anyway support the government), then KCR-PK would have dealt a crushing and demoralizing impact to the state BJP. The Telangana elections will be held along with elections to Rajasthan, MP and Chhattisgarh in late 2023 – so the timing is also very crucial. We will have to now wait and see how this “best friendship” of PK and KCR will play out in the near future.

The focus of the barrage of articles regarding PK’s meeting with Sonia Gandhi was more on how awesome PK is; how involved Sonia Gandhi is; and how a master plan is being brewed up with the only suspense being the role that PK will take up. Some sources suggest a General Secretary role; some suggest a pivotal role in charge of Gujarat and Himachal elections first; some suggest that he will have no title but an advisory role and so on.

Given his success with various regional parties, PK would definitely not accept something as simple as an advisory role. He would need full control over whatever role he is being given. The Congress party is of course not ready to accept an outsider as election in charge of key states or even as General Secretary in charge of key messaging. The Congress party is perhaps looking for an Ahmed Patel to the Gandhi siblings. Sonia Gandhi knows that her success during her peak is vastly because of deft management by the likes of Ahmed Patel and currently they see no one in the Congress party who can play that role for Rahul or Priyanka. They need someone to tame the arrogance and ignorance of the Gandhi siblings. They need someone to take care of the nitty-gritty of the party; the campaigning; the money and the messaging. And they are all clueless as to who can do all of this!

Sonia Gandhi has met PK twice in 3 days. Such level of importance can only happen if PK has recommended something revolutionary by Congress standards and Sonia Gandhi is thinking seriously of going ahead with implementing the same. We will need to wait and see how this will pan out, but this will not be as dud as PK just joining the party.