Telangana Assembly Election 2023: Congress is all set to register a historic victory in the state, as the grand old party is leading by 63 seats as of 4:00 PM. This will be the first time when Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao's Bharat Rashtra Samiti will lose the polls ever since the formation of Telangana as a different state. Rao, who has been holding power since 2014, will finally step down from his position, and Congress leader Revanth Reddy is likely to take over the reign.

The win of the grand old party is a major one, and poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu is among the people who played an important role in leading Congress to the path of victory. Let's take a look at who is Sunil Kanugolu and why is he important.

- Sunil Kanugolu hails from Karnataka and has also played a major role in the victory of the grand old party in Karnataka Polls that took place in May 2023. Kanugolu was the driving force behind the INC's Telangana election campaign strategy, which helped the party win a landslide majority.

- Two years ago, KCR had invited Kanugolu to a meeting at his Hyderabad residence and offered him to join the election strategy team for the polls, however, the latter turned down the offer and joined Congress instead.

- After Prashant Kishor turned down Congress' offer to be a poll strategist, Kanugolu was brought on by the party and was appointed as a member of the Task Force 2024.

- Earlier, Sunil Kanugolu was a member of Prashant Kishor's team that designed the BJP's poll strategy for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, which marked the victory of BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

- Beginning with the Karnataka elections, Kanugolu was named chairman of the AICC's election strategy committee.