Prashant Kishor slams senior Cong leaders' absence from CAA-NRC stir

Janata Dal-United Vice President and election strategist Prashant Kishor on Saturday expressed his shock at the absence of the top brass of the Congress party from the streets during the ongoing protests against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Registrar for Citizens (NRC) and asked them to join as otherwise issuing video messages even by the likes of Sonia Gandhi will mean nothing.

"Congress is not on streets and its top leadership has been largely absent in the citizens' fight against CAA-NRC," Kishor tweeted.

"The least you could do it to make ALL Congress CMs join other CMs who have said that they will not allow NRC in their states. Or else these statements means nothing," he said, in reply to Congress tweeting a video late on Friday of their chief Sonia Gandhi.

Although Priyanka Gandhi has been holding the fort in the absence of her brother and former chief Rahul Gandhi amid the huge surge of political stir all over the nation, there has not been much visibility of the top Congress leaders once the rally on December 14 ended at the Ramlila Ground here .

Kishor, who has been instrumental in making the then BJP Prime Ministerial candidate Narendra Modi 'chai pe charcha' campaign a success, was apparently taking a dig at former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and other senior leaders for not joining the anti-CAA-NRC protests.

Rahul Gandhi had left for an official tour of South Korea on Monday morning, a day after the students of Jamia Millia Islamia protesting which turned violent.

On Tuesday, Congress General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra joined the protest at India Gate over the police brutality. She even joined the protest over CAA at India Gate on Friday evening.

Earlier, Kishor, had also urged Bihar Chief Minister and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar to reconsider his decision to support the CAB in Rajya Sabha.

After the JD-U supported the Bill, he again took to Twitter and said: "Disappointed to see JD-U supporting CAB that discriminates right of citizenship on the basis of religion.

"It's incongruous with the party's constitution that carries the word secular thrice on the very first page and the leadership that is supposedly guided by Gandhian ideals."

The protest over CAA and NRC has led to violent protest across several parts of the country.IANS