The Congress on Monday responded to poll strategist Prashant Kishor’s suggestion to Rahul Gandhi advising him to ‘consider stepping back’ if the grand old party does not get the desired results in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

“I do not answer on remarks by consultants. Talk about political people, what is there to answer on consultants?” Congress social media head Supriya Shrinate was quoted by PTI as saying.

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On Sunday, Kishor had told PTI, “Rahul Gandhi, for all practical purposes, is running the Congress and has been unable to either step aside or let someone else steer the party despite his inability to deliver the results in the last 10 years.”

Kishor had declined to join the Congress in 2022, citing the “party needs leadership and collective will to fix the deep rooted structural problems through transformational reforms”.

The poll strategist had cited Rahul Gandhi’s decision to step down as Congress chief after the party’s drubbing in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Gandhi had written that he will step back and let somebody else do the job.

“Many Congress leaders will admit privately that they cannot take any decision in the party, even about a single seat or seat sharing with alliance partners “unless they get the approval from xyz,” Kishor told the agency, referring to their need to defer to Rahul Gandhi.

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“The Congress and its supporters are bigger than any individual and Gandhi should not be stubborn that it must be him who will deliver for the party despite repeated failures,” he added.

“When you are doing the same work for the last 10 years without any success, then there is no harm in taking a break… You should allow someone else to do it for five years. Your mother did it,” he had said, referring to Sonia Gandhi’s decision to step aside after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991 and let PV Narasimha Rao take charge.

(With PTI inputs)