Even though poll strategist Prashant Kishor had declined to join the Congress, the Grand Old Party has roped in his former associate Sunil Kanugolu to be a part of its Task Force 2024 for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Apart from Kanugolu, senior Congress leaders included in the group are P Chidambaram, Mukul Wasnik, Jairam Ramesh, KC Venugopal, Ajay Maken, Priyanka Gandhi, and Randeep Surjewala. This task force will manage organisation, media and communication, outreach, finance and election management for the party.
The Task Force will also follow up on the Udaipur Sankalp Declaration and the reports of the six groups. A three-day brainstorming session, Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir, was held by the Congress and attended by the Gandhis and senior party leaders, to discuss the strategy for the 2024 assembly polls and the electoral challenges.
Currently, Kanugolu is working with Congress in Telangana and Karnataka and making a strategy for the upcoming Assembly polls. Earlier, the Karnataka poll analyst had designed DMK chief and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin’s “Namakku Naame” campaign ahead of the 2016 Assembly polls. Later, Kanugolu formed campaigns for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Karnataka Assembly elections. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he returned to DMK and helped the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) win 38 of the state’s 39 parliamentary constituencies.
Getting Kanugolu in the AICC group reflects the party’s desperate need for a poll strategist.
Apart from the Task Force 2024, the Congress has formed Political Affairs Group, headed by party interim president Sonia Gandhi. The other eight members included in the group are Rahul Gandhi, Mallikarjun Kharge, Ambika Soni, Digvijaya Singh, KC Venugopal, Jitendra Singh and G-23 leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and Anand Sharma.
The third committee formed by the Congress is Central Planning Group for the “Bharat Jodo Padyatra”. It has nine members, including Digvijaya Singh, Sachin Pilot, Shashi Tharoor, Ravneet Singh Bittu, KJ George, JothiMani, Pradyut Bordoloi, Jitu Patwari and Saleem Ahmed.
Interestingly Digvijaya Singh is a part of two committees while veteran leader Kamal Nath is missing from the committees.