Sunil Kanugolu, brain behind PayCM campaign, appointed chief adviser to CM Siddaramaiah

BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has appointed poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu as chief adviser with Cabinet minister rank. The Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) issued an order to this effect on Wednesday.

In the run-up to the Assembly polls, Kanugolu was the brain behind the ‘PayCM’ poster campaign, and the five guarantees announced by the Congress. He was also instrumental in strategising the election campaign for the party.

After the PayCM campaign, Kanugolu won the trust of state leadership. It is said that the party high command had instructed that he should be named as chief adviser to the CM, which is being seen as an attempt to keep Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in check after KPCC president D K Shivakumar was appointed Deputy Chief Minister.

In his earlier stint as Chief Minister from 2013-18, Siddaramaiah had been given a free hand to run the administration.

Kanugolu is a member of the Congress’ ‘Task Force 2024’, which was constituted in the view of 2024 Lok Sabha polls and worked for the Congress’s success in the Karnataka Assembly election.

In Karnataka Assembly Polls, the Congress won 135 seats, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won 66 seats, while Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) won only 19. Independents have won two seats while Kalyana Rajya Pragathi Paksha and Sarvodaya Karnataka Paksha have won one seat each.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said that the state government has taken a decision to implement all the five guarantees that the Congress party promised during election campaign. On Wednesday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told media persons after holding a pre-cabinet meeting in Bengaluru, “The government has taken a decision to implement all the five poll guarantees”.

The party had focused on five election promises targeting women, the unemployed and BPL families to make a comeback in the state. The five ‘main’ guarantees were 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti); Rs 2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi); 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya); Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (Yuva Nidhi) and free travel for women in public transport buses (Sakhi). (With Agency inputs)