Political strategist Prashant Kishor on Tuesday said that he has been associated with 11 elections between 2011 and 2021, but only lost the one held in Uttar Pradesh in 2017 because of the Congress, ANI reported.

“From 2011 to 2021, I was associated with 11 elections and lost only one election that is with Congress in UP,” Kishor said. “Since then, I have decided that I will not work with them [Congress] as they have spoiled my track record.”

He was the poll strategist for the Congress-Samajwadi Alliance for 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, which the coalition had lost.

The Congress leaders are such that they will go down and take everyone with them, he said, according to NDTV. “If I go [and join Congress], I will also drown,” he said.

On May 20, Kishor had said that the Congress’ three-day Chintan Shivir, or introspection meeting, held in Udaipur from May 13 to May 15, had failed to achieve meaningful results.

“In my view, it failed to achieve anything meaningful other than prolonging the status-quo and giving some time to the Congress leadership, at least till the impending electoral rout in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh,” he wrote on Twitter.

The meeting came in the backdrop of the party’s dismal performance in the 2022 Assembly polls in five states – Goa, Manipur, Punjab, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh.

In April, Kishor said he refused to join the Congress as a member of its Empowered Action Group 2024. The group is meant to address the political challenges for the Congress ahead of the 2024 General Assembly elections.

Kishor said that the Congress party needs leadership and collective will to fix its “deep-rooted structural problems” through transformational reforms.