Prashant Kishor

"Everyone knows he is working for BJP in Bihar. At present he is acting behind the screen. He should come in front of the screen and face us directly. He has nothing to do with Bihar. He is just doing branding for himself. He was taking an appointment to meet the Chief Minister and on the other hand, he is branding himself before a media person as that the Chief Minister wants to meet him," JD-U national President Lalan Singh said.

"This is the party responsible for breaking my track record of winning. It is not improving and even it may drown me. Hence, I will never work with the Congress again," Kishor said with folded hands at an interaction with media in Vaishali, where he was to prepare ground for his Jan Suraaj campaign. "In the last 10 years, I was involved in 11 elections and only one I lost in Uttar Pradesh in 2017. At that time, I was associated with the Congress party. It has broken my winning record.

"Mahatva Satya Ka Hota Hai (truth has an importance) and the truth is that Bihar has been walking on the development path. Who is saying that development works have not taken place in Bihar. I would not give any importance to it. I want to tell you to analyse whether development has taken place or not. You (media) should answer him about the development works being done in Bihar," Nitish Kumar said.

PK, as Kishor is popularly known, met Rahul Gandhi through party leaders Jairam Ramesh and K.C. Venugopal after party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi gave him cold shoulder. Rahul Gandhi, subsequently, connected to him to party chief Sonia Gandhi who made a committee to look after his suggestions. Initially, PK wanted to manage elections of Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and in return was Bihar Congress Presidentship for him.

Sources in the Congress say that Kishor wanted sweeping powers and a free hand in election management, but the party wanted a group of leaders to oversee the 2024 general elections. Several Congress leaders were reportedly of the opinion that no consultant should get the power to run the whole show. The sources also indicated that Rahul Gandhi was also not keen to give power to any one person.

The Congress on Tuesday officially announced that election Kishor will not be working for the party as he declined to be part of the empowered action group for the 2024 general elections. The declaration came a day after Sonia Gandhi had announced the constitution of the group. "I declined the generous offer of #Congress to join the party as part of the EAG & take responsibility for the elections," PK tweeted.

Congress General Secretary Randeep Surjewala said in a tweet, "Following a presentation and discussion with Prashant Kishor, the Congress President has constituted a Empowered Action Group 2024 & invited him to join the party as part of the group with defined responsibility. He declined. We appreciate his efforts & suggestion given to party."