In order to checkmate poll strategist Prashant Kishor hired by KCR in Telangana, Rahul Gandhi has made an elaborate plan to counter him. The Congress leader has picked his onetime protégé Sunil Kanugolu — who worked with 5 parties and with PK in 2013. Sunil who worked with the DMK in 2019 LS polls and worked for the AIADMK in the Tamil Nadu assembly polls has been roped in via AICC functionary Manickam Tagore. Rahul recently informed party leaders from Karnataka and Telangana that Sunil would closely work with them. Unlike PK, Sunil has been asked to join as a senior AICC office bearer and will undertake his new responsibility — most likely as political economist Praveen Chakravarty 2.0. Party leaders of course wish to ask what would be the ideological commitment of professional election strategists like Sunil who closely worked with the BJP and, which AICC High Command vehemently demands of its leaders. A Telangana leader pointed out how Sunil was hired by KCR before PK had joined him. Switching over from DMK to AIADMK overnight also indicates he is just a professional ready to do a job. But what is nagging Southern leaders is why Sunil a close friend of Amit Shah, is not being deployed in Gujarat but in Karnataka and Telangana where Congress victory has a high probability?