Captain Amarinder Singh and strategist Prashant Kishor denied reports of an uneasy working relationship in Punjab.
Highlights
- Captain Amarinder Singh is Congress candidate for Punjab Chief Minister
- Denies reports of rift with election guru Prashant Kishor
- Kishor met with expelled Congressmen while Captain was abroad
Election wunderkind
Prashant Kishor and his client, Captain Amarinder Singh of the Congress, were very much in sync today as they denied reports of an uneasy working relationship in Punjab, which will vote next year.
"100%. Things are 100% fine. We've been together for the whole of yesterday, been together whole of this morning. We have no differences whatsoever," said Captain Amarinder Singh, the Congress' presumptive Chief Minister for Punjab.
"The question of quitting is nothing but wild speculation" tweeted Mr Kishor's organization, I-Pac (Indian Political Action Committee), adding that it is "honoured" to be working with the Congress.
NDTV reported yesterday of a growing chasm between some top leaders of the Congress and Mr Kishor, 37, who has been given auteur-like credit for Prime Minister Narendra Modi's general election campaign of 2014 and
Nitish Kumar's successful re-election in Bihar just months ago. Mr Kishor has signed up to handle the Congress strategy for Uttar Pradesh and Punjab.
Some Congress leaders recently suggested that Prashant Kishor is trying to change too much around.
But Mr Kishor's recent conferral with expelled Congress members, or those seen as against Captain Singh, 74, reportedly created a stress-point in Punjab. The Congressman said today that those consultations took place while he was abroad, and acknowledged they created some problems, including the perception of an escalating quarrel. "I was abroad for three weeks meeting NRIs all over America and talking to them ,and he met a few people here and when I was asked by the press I said, 'You know, the two people he met were the people who had been expelled from the party - let's put it this way, because of a disciplinary matter - and a disciplinary matter is a matter of the PCC (Punjab Congress) and I will deal with that'. And that is all I said. But he met them in my absence and that is the only thing people have made a hue and cry about."
Bygones now, he said breezily. "I was sitting with Prashant having a cup of coffee in the next room, he is staying with me in my house .. the fact of the matter is we both get on very well. He is a strategist, I am the party President, he discusses every issue with me and whatever we have to implement, we then implement after a thorough discussion."
Some Congress leaders recently suggested that Mr Kishor is colouring outside the party lines by trying to change too much around, including demanding a committee for the Congress' UP campaign that would include veterans like Sheila Dikshit and Kamal Nath.