Karnataka Results: Sunil Kanugolu, poll strategist ‘as elusive as Bagheera’ who scripted Congress’ win

Many have heard the name Prashant Kishor. In 2014, he was credited with helping Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to script a win that no one thought was possible. It’s now 2023 and many thought the same about the Congress when it came to the Karnataka Assembly Elections. But the Grand Old Party had help from another ‘Prashant Kishor’ and his name is Sunil Kanugolu.

The Congress has thumped the BJP in the southern state – at last count, the Mallikarjun Kharge-led party had won 135 seats with the saffron party trailing at 65 and the Janata Dal(Secular) winning just 20 seats. Part of this success should be attributed to the reclusive election strategist Sunil Kanugolu; in fact News18 has reported, “In the run-up to the polls, the most common K factors being mentioned were Kittur and Kalyana Karnataka. However, the lesser-known Kanugolu is who helped the Congress recapture the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru.”

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Let’s take a better look at who is Kanugolu and how he helped Congress script a victory in Karnataka, snatching BJP’s southern citadel.

Kanugolu’s early life

Not much is known about Sunil Kanugolu and that is by design. An introvert by nature, there are very details about his personal life.

The nearly 40-year-old Kanugolu was born in Karnataka’s Ballari district and studied there till middle school. He later moved to Chennai till he left for the United States. He studied engineering as an under graduate. He also has two post graduate degrees – an MS in Finance and an MBA. He returned to India from the US in 2009.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has stated that Kanugolu has held the post of director in three companies — SR Independent Fisheries Private Limited, SR Naturo Foods Private Limited and Brainstorm Innovation and Research Private Limited (BSIR) — all of which have ceased to exist.

It is reported that he also worked as a consultant with McKinsey – from where he probably has got his habit of staying away from the public glare and also not sharing his personal views.

His aversion to public life is so staunch that a leading daily recently shared an image of his brother, passing it off as him. Even Congress leaders have commented on his intense need to stay to private, with one telling The Print, “He is as elusive as Bagheera (the black panther from Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli stories), and leaves no trail.”

News18 has reported that Kanugolu believes in taking the extra step help friends and according to his mates, he’s a foodie; in fact, his friends call him a ‘militant meat-eater’.

Kanugolu’s brush with politics & Modi

Kanugolu’s brush with politics began long ago and he had approached Narendra Modi when he was chief minister of Gujarat. Kanugolu had shown Modi a presentation using data analytics on how to reach out to more voters.

According to reports, Kanugolu began working with Modi way before Prashant Kishor took charge of the 2014 campaign. But it was then that the two pollsters’ paths crossed and they worked together. He continued his BJP run even after Kishor split with the BJP, shifting to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

In October 2016, ahead of the 2017 Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections, Kanugolu was tasked by the BJP to form an election consultancy firm that would rival Kishor’s. Kanugolu then with fellow strategist Himanshu Singh, and Gujarati businessman began the Association of Brilliant Minds (ABM).

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Kanugolu in 2016 helped the Dravida Munnetra Kazagham (DMK) party and MK Stalin by designing the “Namakku Naame” campaign. However, it didn’t translate into a victory for the DMK. Following this, he worked, according to Indian Express, closely with Amit Shah until February 2018 and helped the party in elections in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Karnataka. Incidentally, BJP’s win in 2018 in the southern state was under his watchful eye.

In 2021, Sonia Gandhi and Rahul had a meeting with Kanugolu and employed his company, Mindshare Analytics, services. In May of 2022, then Congress president Sonia Gandhi named Kanugolu a member of the party’s 2024 Lok Sabha election task force that also features veteran leaders such as P Chidambaram, Mukul Wasnik, Jairam Ramesh, K C Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and Randeep Singh Surjewala, who was the AICC leader in charge of Karnataka.

The Karnataka task

The Print reports that he was picked by the party to spearhead its election strategy and immediately went into work mode. He only interacted with a handful of Congress leaders, including party general secretary (organisation) KC Venugopal and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala who is also the in-charge for Karnataka.

When asked what he does exactly for the Congress, one leader said that his job comprised of “ground listening and surveys”. He worked tirelessly in the state, working 20 hours a day, seven days a week to stop the BJP in its tracks.

Many within the party also credit Kanugolu for strategising Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra from Kanyakumari to Kashmir – which has been seen as one of the factors contributing to the party’s win in the state. Several of the Bharat Jodo Yatra’s trending moments such as Rahul walking with farmers to slain journalist and activist Gauri Lankesh’s mother was the brainchild of Kanugolu. It’s indeed ironic that a man with no personal social media accounts knows what will click with people online.

He also is believed to have brought the two warring factions of the state unit led by DK Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah together.

Kanogolu has also been instrumental in Congress’ PayCM campaign. For the unaware, prior to the elections, the state had several PayCM posters displayed all over. When scanned, it directed the person to a website – ‘40% Sarkara; – which alleged that the Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government was charging 40 per cent commission on public works.

One would assume that he’s overjoyed with the party’s win in the state. But according to a News18 report, he has kept his emotions in check and exuded no ego.

Will Kanugolu be able to repeat his success in Karnataka in the 2024 general elections for the Grand Old Party? We shall keep an eye out.

With inputs from agencies

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