A Deccan Herald report suggests that Karnataka Congress relied heavily on Kanugolu’s micro-management. The wily poll strategist was part of the Congress’ core team, which developed catchy campaigns such as 'PayCM' and '40 percent commission' against the previous Bharatiya Janata Party government in the state.
Kanugolu, through his company Mindshare Analytics, kept providing valuable insights to Karnataka Congress leaders based on which the party high command took up course corrections during the campaigning. In fact, he even joined the Congress in the run-up to the Assembly elections. So, his appointment doesn’t really come as a surprise and it seems that the grand old party now wants to use Kanugolu’s expertise for the 2024 General Elections, given the landslide win in the southern state.
Interestingly, Sunil Kanugolu was earlier associated with ace poll strategist Prashant Kishor. Kanugolu was among the key members behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi's successful campaign in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
He later parted ways with Kishor and established his own firm.
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Kanugolu has also worked with other political parties like Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), AIADMK, and Shiromani Akali Dal in the past.
According to a Hindustan Times report, Sunil Kanugolu was appointed as a member of Congress’ Task Force 2024 in May last year. This was a team created by the party to execute the Nav Sankalp declaration after its Udaipur brainstorming session. Prominent leaders like Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ajay Maken, P Chidambaram and Mukul Wasnik are also a part of this task force.
It is worth noting that the data-driven strategist has also been credited with planning Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo Yatra.
(Edited by : Sudarsanan Mani)
