Priyanka to Sheila, Prashant Kishor is giving Congress many firsts in UP

Poll strategist Prashant Kishor has managed to pull off what many Congress men have tried and failed in the past.  

He has, if sources in the Congress are to be believed, succeeded in persuading Priyanka Gandhi to campaign vigorously for the party's CM candidate - Sheila Dikshit - during the Uttar Pradesh elections.  

She will hit the campaign trail across the state closer to the elections.  

He has also got the leadership to make a significant break from normal practice by announcing a chief ministerial candidate six months ahead of the Assembly elections.   

India's grand old party normally does not announce its CM or PM candidate unless there is an incumbent leading it into the polls.  

Manmohan Singh was projected as the PM candidate in 2009 after he had served a term as prime minister.

Also read: Sheila Dikshit, Raj Babbar is not about Congress winning in UP

In 2004, the party fought the Lok Sabha elections under Sonia Gandhi's leadership but even she was not formally projected as the prime ministerial candidate.

Getting the 130-year-old Congress party, so steeped in the past and burdened with its ponderous and time-consuming decision-making processes, to make a break from tradition is no mean achievement.  

He has also managed to put together a team, with each of the important players - Raj Babbar, Pramod Tewari, Sanjay Singh, Salman Khurshid - given an important role.

Prashant Kishor may have ruffled a few feathers in the process, but he has begun to make his presence felt and won over some of the "doubting Thomases" within the Congress party.

Also read: Is Prashant Kishor strategy for Congress in UP coming undone?

Kishor's other big achievement is in persuading Rahul Gandhi to shed his reservations about his party's old guard.

The Congress vice-president has made no secret of his desire to entrust the future of his party in the hands of leaders in his age group and he would have been happier having an RPN Singh or a Jitin Prasad at the helm.

Kishor, however, has managed to get him to accept the fact that the old guard still has something to offer.  

Both Pramod Tewari and Sanjay Singh are not exactly young, but have contributions to make in terms of their influence not just amongst members of their own community but also in their resourcefulness and ability to mobilise the party workers.

Also read: Priyanka Gandhi won't fool voters. Sorry, Prashant Kishor

There is no denying the fact that the Congress party has a mountain to climb in Uttar Pradesh and announcing a list of office bearers is far easier than winning elections.

However, the mere fact that a party that was wallowing in the fourth position in the state is now being talked about, is in itself a promising start.

But sterner tests await Prashant Kishor.

His real trial will be to actually get this team to work together and ensure that his election strategy, of getting the Brahmins and the minorities to coalesce around the Congress party, succeeds on the ground. 

Also read: Prashant Kishor can't make Congress win UP. Rahul Gandhi won't

The Congress had been almost written off in UP, with the smart money has been so far on either the BSP, BJP or the SP to form the next government in the state. 

The party organisation is in shambles, elections to the PCC have not been held for years, worker morale is at an all-time low and till a week ago, it faced a huge leadership vacuum in the state.

Its chief ministerial candidate is the venerable 78-year-old Sheila Dikshit.

In the same vein, all three other major players - Raj Babbar, Pramod Tewari and Sanjay Singh - are neither young, nor quite appealing to generation next.