Cong is dead horse, only Arvind Kejriwal can challenge BJP at national level: AAP

HIGHLIGHTS

The Congress is a “dead horse” and there is no point in flogging it, the AAP said on Saturday after poll strategist Prashant Kishor attended the grand old party’s meeting presided over by Sonia Gandhi and also expressed his readiness to join it.

• Fresh from its stupendous victory in Punjab, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) also projected its national convenor Arvind Kejriwal as the “only” challenger to the BJP at the national level.

• He said the Congress neither has a future nor can it give a future to Indians. “Anything multiplied to zero is zero,” Chadha said.

• The AAP MP said that his party’s victory in the Punjab assembly polls has shown that Kejriwal’s model of governance and politics of work is “scalable”.

• “There is only person who can take on the might of the BJP’s election machine, and that person is Arvind Kejriwal,” Chadha said, adding “Kejriwal has got what it takes to challenge the BJP at the national level.”

• With the Congress reeling from a string of defeats, poll strategist Kishor on Saturday gave a detailed presentation to its top brass at a meeting chaired by Sonia Gandhi on the way forward for the 2024 general elections, while expressing readiness to join the party.

• AICC general secretary K C Venugopal said a decision on Kishor’s suggestions, including on whether he will join the party, will be known in a week.

• There had been intense speculation in the past too on the possibility of Kishor joining the Congress including before the recent assembly polls.

• Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Mallikarjun Kharge and other senior party leaders were present at the four-hour meeting at the Congress president’s 10, Janpath residence that discussed the party’s strategy for upcoming assembly polls and the next Lok Sabha election.

• According to sources, Kishor told the select gathering that he is ready to join the Congress “without any expectations” and does not want anything but his plan should be implemented to help strengthen the party at the grassroots level.

• Venugopal told reporters after the meeting that a group will be set up to discuss the suggestions.