Poll Strategist Sunil Kanugolu Appointed CM Siddaramaiah's Advisor

Sunil Kanugolu, the man who shaped Congress' poll strategy in recently-held Karnataka Assembly polls, has been reportedly appointed as the chief advisor to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, with the rank of a Cabinet minister.

However, it is still unclear on the nature of his work as the Karnataka CM's advisor, according to a report in Deccan Herald.

Kanugolu hails from Ballari. A Telugite, who has his roots in Karnataka and was brought up in Chennai.

"He has a personality that is calm but firm. He is low-profile, attention-hating, and because he always comes armed with data from field surveys, he cannot be bulldozed, and politicians find a lot of value in him in their everyday political work," NDTV quoted a Congress insider as saying about the poll strategist.

Kanugolu is credited for his innovative poll campaigns that include the 'PayCM' campaign against the previous BJP government. This helped Congress to set a narrative around corruption.

"But what the campaign did was give our party a lot of ammunition to attack the government and connect with people. It gave us the upper hand over the BJP, which kept treating it like a gimmick," a person told the TV channel.

The Congress registered a resounding victory, winning 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly.

It is interesting to note that he had worked for the BJP in the past as well.

In the 2018 Karnataka Assembly polls, he had worked with the saffron party. Kanugolu had earlier worked with poll strategist, Prashant Kishor and was instrumental in the election campaign by Narendra Modi in 2014.

He has also served as the head of the BJP's Association of Billion Minds. He also played a key role in the BJP's election campaign in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Gujarat and Karnataka. In all these states the BJP had emerged victorious.

He also has the credit of planning the Bharat Jodo Yatra, led by Congress leader, Rahul Gandhi from Kanyakumari to Kashmir.

The poll strategist had worked with the DMK and Siromani Akali Dal in the past.

Meanwhile, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Priyank Kharge will once again be in-charge of IT and BT department along with the existing portfolio, while Large & Medium Industries Minister M B Patil has been given the additional charge of Infrastructure Development.