Sunil Kanugolu – The camera-shy Sonia confidante was once a Modi man

As Congress president Sonia Gandhi declared the election task force for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls recently, one name stood out in contrast to the list of veteran Congress men – poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu.

In a committee comprising the likes of Mukul Wasnik, KC Venugopal, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, P Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Ajay Maken and Randeep Singh Surjewala, Kanugolu’s name sounds like a non-entity, but the man in his late 30s knows his onions.

Kanugolu was earlier the chief of the Association of Brilliant Minds, the BJP’s personalised campaign organisation, and now heads Mindshare Analytics. The Bellari, Karnataka-born Kanugolu has assisted as a strategist in more than 10 elections for national and regional parties and has worked with more than a dozen chief ministers.

Shy guy

Kanugolu has no presence on social networking sites and is so media shy that he does not even have a photo of his in the public domain. He stays away from the media glare, as against his more popular counterpart Prashant Kishor, who likes to flaunt his reputation and successes.

An ex-colleague of Kanugolu told ThePrint that there could be two reasons why he prefers to stay away from the media and publicity: One, he comes from McKinsey, an organisation that doesn’t want its employees to share their opinions on clients and politics in the public; two, the man does not like to take credit overtly, and allows the client to stay in the limelight.

Association with the Congress

Kanugolu came close to Congress even as Kishor’s entry to the Grand Old Party failed after repeated efforts. However, it is a known fact that Kanugolu has been in touch with the Congress leadership since 2018 and his entry in the party’s 2024 election strategy team is a well thought out decision by the Congress high command.

Kishor’s plans scuttled because he sought more authority and suggested major changes in the party structure, which was not acceptable to a majority of old guard within the Congress.

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Senior Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala described Kanugolu as a member of the Congress. The party has already hired his erstwhile company Mindshare Analytics’ services for the Karnataka state polls, which will be held in 2023. Kanugolu has got a preference in the party over Kishor because unlike the latter, he knows where to stop and is willing to let the client take credit of the success and restraints from flaunting his connections, said a senior Congress leader.

Another leader said he is so averse to media limelight that he does not have a photograph of his in the public sphere. The photo circulating on social media as his is, in fact, that of Sushil Kanugolu, MD of meat etail start-up Fipola. The poll strategist himself remains elusive to the camera.

Working with PK and separation

One striking difference between Kanugolu and Kishor is the way they handle their public image. And it is this difference that has worked in favour of Kanugolu when aligning with the Congress.

Even before the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign of Narendra Modi began, Kanugolu was part of Team BJP as a data analytics expert. He had impressed Modi with his assessment of numbers. Kishor, who headed the Citizens for Accountable Governance (CAG) then, became in-charge of BJP’s campaign for the 2014 elections and Kanugolu worked with Kishor for Modi’s campaign.

After the 2014 polls, the two parted ways. In 2016, just before the 2017 Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, the BJP asked Kanugolu to form an election consultancy firm that could compete with Kishor’s I-PAC. Kanugolu then set up Association of Brilliant Minds (ABM) along with another poll strategist Himanshu Singh and Gujarati entrepreneur Deepak Patel.

People who know and have worked with Kanugolu and Kishor say that while the latter parted ways with the BJP, the former maintained an amicable relationship with the party leadership.

While Kanugolu left ABM in 2018, the consultation firm continues to plan BJP’s campaigns.

Also read: Prashant Kishor’s ‘magic formula’ may not work in Bihar

Kanugolu then designed DMK president and present Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s “Namakku Naame” campaign ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls. The campaign got a good response, but the DMK failed to win the polls. However, it improved Stalin’s public reputation and helped him in the subsequent polls.

Kanugolu has spearheaded 14 major elections till date, of which nine have been for the BJP, two for the DMK and others for the Akali Dal, the AIADMK and now the Congress.