I-PAC ‘working for TRS’ even as Prashant Kishor holds talks with KCR: Reports

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader KT Rama Rao on Sunday confirmed that the Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), once headed by poll strategist Prashant Kishor, is working for TRS officially, news agency ANI reported. This comes amid reports about Kishor joining the Congress. Rao, however, made it clear that his party is only working with the I-PAC and not Kishor.

"Prashant Kishor has introduced I-PAC to the TRS party and the I-PAC is working for us officially. We are not working with Prashant Kishor, but we are working with the I-PAC," ANI quoted KTR as saying.

The TRS working president also said chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) is running the TRS for the last two decades but the party doesn't want to miss the digital medium, and that's why the I-PAC is going to help the TRS party in coming polls.

"Prashant Kishor has disassociated himself from the I-PAC and he is doing his own politics. The I-PAC will be working for us," he said.

Reports also suggest that Kishor held talks with KCR in Hyderabad over two days. There has been no official word from TRS on Kishor's discussions with Rao but party sources told news agency PTI that Kishor, who met Rao on Saturday, continued the talks on Sunday as well.

While the contemporary political situation in the country was discussed in the talks, Kishor is understood to have submitted the details of the surveys done by his team in Telangana, the PTI report added.

KCR said in March that Kishor was working with him on bringing a 'parivartan' (change) in the entire country, describing him as his best friend for the last seven-eight years.

On Thursday, Congress general secretary Tariq Anwar on Thursday said Kishor was willing to join the party without any preconditions. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Anwar had said, wants to take senior leaders into confidence and seek their opinion on whether Kishor's entry into the party will be beneficial or not and then make a decision on the much-speculated matter.

(With inputs from agencies)