The Congress party is making rapid efforts to increase its base and to regain the lost credibility. Assembly elections are going to be held in many states within the next one year. The most prominent of these is the election of Gujarat. In view of this, the party’s state unit and state leaders are also engaged in preparations from their level. In Gujarat, there is talk of bringing industrialist Leuva Patidar leader Naresh Patel into the Congress party. However, Naresh Patel himself wants Prashant Kishor to handle the Congress’s election campaign in Gujarat.
The party seems to have made up its mind to include him. Meanwhile, those criticizing Kishor in the Congress say that he and Patel are working together. They claim that Kishor wants the party to project Patel as its face and Patel wants to project Kishor as an election strategist. Patel is the chairman of the Shree Khodaldham Trust, which manages the grand temple of Khodiyar, the patron goddess of the Leuva Patidar community, near Rajkot. The Congress believes that his entry will help in attracting the Leuva Patidar community to the party. The politically influential community is mainly concentrated in the Saurashtra region.
Some senior Congress leaders have already approached him to bring Patidar leader Naresh Patel into the party. Among them the most prominent names are Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot. Apart from this, senior Gujarat Congress leader Bharat Singh Solanki also met him.