Prashant Kishor And KCR On Talks?

On Monday, KTR ridiculed the Congress and asked why election strategist Prashant would want to join it. Mr. Rao senior has signed up with IPAC, the organization Mr. Kishor led for years, yesterday, setting off speculation on whether it put brakes on the election strategist's ongoing negotiations with the Congress.

Asked if there might be a conflict of interest in Mr. Kishor's negotiations with the Congress, Mr KTR told a reputed media channel, "Firstly, I don't know if the Congress can be taken seriously anywhere in the country".

The party, he said, has not had a "single course correction in the last 3 years" despite their string of defeats.

Mr. Kishor, who has officially delinked himself from IPAC but is still associated with it -- spent the weekend in Hyderabad closeted with the Chief Minister.

The meeting is likely to have upset a section of the Congress, which is uncomfortable with Mr. Kishor's professional and personal links to regional parties - which they clearly regard as their enemies.

Mr Kishor has been a political advisor to Trinamool Congress chief and Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and her AP counterpart Jagan, the chief of the YSR Congress. Both parties are old rivals of Congress in both states.