"This according to me is also anti-democratic," said Kishor told PTI pointing out that Rahul Gandhi has been running the party for the past 10 years unsuccessfully and still he is not willing to step aside to let somebody else steer the Congress party.
"When you are doing the same work for the last 10 years without any success, then there is no harm in taking a break... You should allow someone else to do it for five years. Your mother did it," he said, recalling Sonia Gandhi's decision to keep away from politics following her husband Rajiv Gandhi's assassination and let P V Narasimha Rao take charge in 1991.
A key attribute of good leaders the world over is that they know what they lack and actively look to fill those gaps, he said.
"But it seems to Rahul Gandhi that he knows everything. Nobody can help you if you do not recognise the need for help. He believes he needs someone who can execute what he thinks is right. It is not possible," Kishor said.
Citing Gandhi's decision to resign as the Congress president following the party's drubbing in the 2019 polls, he said the Wayanad MP had then written that he would step back and let somebody else do the job. But, in effect, he has been doing contrary to what he had written, he added.
Parivarwaad is a liability now: Kishor
On BJP's ‘parivarwaad’ (family rule) jibe at Congress, Kishor said, ‘becoming a leader because of one's surname might have been an advantage in the post-independence era but is a liability now.’
"Be it Rahul Gandhi, Akhilesh Yadav or Tejashwi Yadav. Their respective parties may have accepted them as their leader but people have not. Has Akhilesh Yadav been able to lead Samajwadi Party to victory," he asked.
He, though, added that the BJP has not had to deal with the issue because they have acquired power recently, and the pressure to give positions to family members of its leaders will come now.
(With inputs from PTI)