Karnataka assembly win no guarantee Cong will perform well in 2024: Prashant Kishor

The Karnataka assembly victory is not a guarantee that the Congress will perform well in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, pointed out political strategist-turned-activist Prashant Kishor on Wednesday (May 17).

In a statement shared by Jan Suraaj, a political campaign launched by Kishor, the IPAC founder in his home state of Bihar, he cautioned the Congress not to mistake their win in the recently concluded Karnataka assembly polls as a precursor to its performance in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

He gave the example of how the Congress despite winning the 2013 Karnataka elections, had gone on to lose to the BJP in 2014 Parliamentary elections. Also, he reminded the grand old party how it had lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections after winning in three major states a year before.

Kishor, who was on a state-wide padayatra and had stopped it two days agao after a muscle tear in his leg said, “I congratulate the Congress upon its success in Karnataka. But, I would also like to caution leaders and workers of the party against mistaking the assembly poll outcome for a hint of what lies in store in Lok Sabha polls.”

Also read: 2024 polls: Opposition unity a facade, won’t work, says poll strategist Prashant Kishor

Kishor is currently convalescing at an undisclosed location.

Ideologically agnostic and therefore often suspected by political players of all hues to be an “agent” of the rival, Kishor reeled out statistics to prove his point on Congress prospects in Lok Sabha polls.

“It may be recalled that in 2012, the Samajwadi Party came to power in Uttar Pradesh with a clear majority. Two years later, in the Lok Sabha poll BJP-led NDA swept the state, bagging 73 out of the 80 seats”, he pointed out.

He also recounted the 2013 Karnataka assembly poll, when the Congress won a majority but lost out to BJP miserably in the Lok Sabha polls. “The Congress would also do well to remember its success in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the 2018 assembly polls, which was followed by its miserable performance in these states just a few months later in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls,” stressed Kishor.

Also read: Wont contest elections myself: Prashant Kishor

The 45-year-old political analyst has handled poll campaigns of leaders as diverse as Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar, Arvind Kejriwal, M K Stalin and Jaganmohan Reddy.

Kishor hung up his boots after the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls in which his client Mamata Banerjee romped home with her best ever electoral performance.

He launched Jan Suraaj after prolonged but fruitless negotiations with top Congress leaders to whom he had tried to sell the promise of revamping the grand old party.

(With agency inputs)