Sunil Kanugolu, Congress’ Karnataka poll strategist, is the advisor to CM Siddaramaiah
Sunil Kanugolu, the Congress poll strategist who is said to have played a significant role in the grand old party’s stunning victory in the Karnataka assembly elections, was appointed Chief Advisor to chief minister Siddaramaiah with the rank of a cabinet minister on Wednesday.
Sunil Kanugolu, the Congress poll strategist who is said to have played a significant role in the grand old party’s stunning victory in the Karnataka assembly elections, was appointed Chief Advisor to chief minister Siddaramaiah with the rank of a cabinet minister on Wednesday.
After Prashant Kishor declined the Congress’s offer to join the party last year, Kanugolu was brought on board to help with the party’s election strategy for several assembly elections across India.The Congress in Karnataka achieved a stunning victory in the assembly elections held on May 10, winning a total of 135 assembly seats out of 224. The grand old party had roped in poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu, who has been working with the Congress party in the state since last year.
Last year in May, Kanugolu was appointed as a member of the Task Force 2024, a team created by the Congress to execute the Nav Sankalp (New Resolution) declaration adopted in Udaipur. Apart from Kanugolu, the team consisted of prominent Congress leaders such as P Chidambaram, Mukul Wasnik, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Randeep Singh Surjewala.
The poll-strategist has also been credited with planning Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra, a march that covered a length of over 4,000 km from the southern tip of India to Jammu and Kashmir. The yatra was an instrumental move by the grand old party that led to recent turning points in election results.
Despite being originally a Telugu speaker, Kanugolu has roots in Karnataka who now resides in Bengaluru. He has worked for the BJP, DMK, and AIADMK in the past. He was also behind the aspects of Tamil pride and the Dravidian model during the Jallikattu protests of 2017, helping the DMK counter the aggressive BJP, as reported by local media.
