Hundreds of leaders and thousands of workers toiled for the Congress’ victory in the recent Karnataka assembly elections. The credit should undoubtedly go to All India Congress Committee president Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka Pradesh congress committee DK Shivakumar and former chief minister Siddaramaiah for providing able leadership through the fiercely fought battle. TNIE takes a look at some of those who contributed significantly
Set the narrative, planned PayCM campaign
Sunil Kanugolu, a 40-year-old master strategist, and a native of the Ballari district, is said to be the brain behind the Congress’ thumping victory. Having worked with political strategist Prashant Kishore, Kanugolu has the experience of working with PM Narendra Modi when he was Gujarat's CM. He started ‘The Association of Billion Minds’ which was behind BJP’s campaigns. Having worked for BJP’s 2014 campaign and with the state BJP unit in the 2018 Assembly polls, Kanugolu was roped in by Congress in 2022. With a team of more than 100 members, he led the Congress war room and set the political narratives. He is the brain behind the ‘PayCM’ campaign. Kanugolu was also given the task of conducting secret surveys in each constituency and picking the winning candidate. Now that he has pulled off a success in Karnataka, Congress units of other states may also use his skill to see better results.
Handled legal issues, booth-level work
Sasikanth Senthil, a 2009-batch IAS officer who quit service in 2019 and joined the Tamil Nadu Congress, was an integral part of the state Congress war room. Senthil headed the 60-member coordination unit, which looked after booth-level work and handled contingency and legal issues. The team worked day in and day out since October last year, and Senthil’s 10 years of service in the state of Karnataka helped the team. “We worked in two batches every day. Though the war room was set up several months ago, the core work started in October. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had only a few narratives while we (Congress) had so many issues to take up against them. Even their campaigning was very weak,” the former IAS officer opines. Now, he is all set to return to Tamil Nadu and build the party there.
Set the pace with social media campaigns
Three-time MLA from Chittapur assembly constituency, 44-year-old Priyank Kharge, son of
AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge is the man behind the Congress social media team that started narratives with its novel and appealing campaigns. The party’s social media platforms saw a drastic change after he was appointed chairman of the KPCC Communication Cell.
It raised issues like corruption, price hike, Hindi imposition and many more. Congress effectively used social media to highlight the corruption of the BJP government. When CM Basavaraj Bommai presented the state budget, Congress leaders ridiculed it with the ‘Kivi Mele Hoova’ (flower on-ear) campaign, suggesting that the government was fooling the people. The social media team amplified the party’s campaign across all platforms and played a key role in reaching the voters.
Coordinator who smoothed away dissent
As AICC General Secretary in charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala was the crucial link between the party’s central and state leadership. Much before AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge and other national leaders jumped into action, Surjewala started to work almost six months before elections were declared. He played a big role as a coordinator and ensured that the ticket distribution process was smooth. He helped state leaders take into confidence those aspirants who were not given tickets, and made sure there was no dissent among them. Importantly, he helped the party set the narrative against the BJP government, with corruption as a major poll plank. He along with other state leaders consistently highlighted issues such as the PSI recruitment scam, bitcoin scam, 40% corruption and other allegations to put the BJP on the back foot.