The next year’s assembly elections are going to witness an interesting political battle in Telangana.
The ruling Telangana Rashtra Samiti is going all out to return to power for the third consecutive term, while its main political rivals – the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party are hoping to wrest power from the TRS.
More than these parties, the battle is going to be interesting also for a different reason.
It will also throw up a fight between two popular political strategists – Prashant Kishor (PK) and Sunil Kanugolu (SK).
TRS president and chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has already announced that Prashant Kishor is working for him and the party.
Though he said PK would be helping him move to the national politics and build an anti-BJP front, party sources say PK was primarily engaged to work out strategies for the party’s victory in the assembly elections.
The way PK and his team has been touring different parts of Telangana to obtain the feedback from the people on the implementation of various government schemes and on the performance of the MLAs itself shows that he was hired for ensuring the return of the TRS for the third term.
On the other hand, Sunil Kanugolu is helping the Congress party at the national level.
Latest reports from New Delhi indicate that SK has actually joined the party and has been entrusted with the responsibility of working for the party in Telangana.
During the meeting with Telangana leaders at his Delhi residence on April 4, of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi told them that SK would help the party in the coming assembly elections in Telangana.
“SK and his team will extensively tour Telangana in the coming days and will identify the right candidates, besides coming out with suggestions to plug loopholes in the party,” a senior Congress leader said.
PK has the track record of securing victories for Nitish Kumar in Bihar, Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy in Andhra Pradesh, Capt Amarinder Singh in Punjab, Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and M K Stalin in Tamil Nadu.
Similarly, SK also worked for Narendra Modi in 2014 general elections and DMK in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
SK, who has worked for top companies like McKinsey is regarded as a thorough poll professional – who looks after conducting surveys, selecting candidates, identifying electioneering methods and campaign issues etc.
Currently, SK is working with Congress in Karnataka and helping PCC president D K Shivakumar.
So, it is going to be virtual war between PK and SK in Telangana in the next elections. It remains to be seen who will gain the upper hand in 2018.
