How Rajasthan Congress is caught in Sunil Kanugolu-DesignBoxed crossfire?

New Delhi: The Rajasthan Congress seems to be caught in a crossfire between poll strategist Sunil Kanugolu and DesignBoxed, a political consultancy firm.

According to Congress sources, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot on the recommendations of Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar had hired DesignBoxed some months ago to enhance his campaign ahead of the assembly elections in the desert state. Shivakumar had personally engaged the services of DesignBoxed for his brand building on the suggestion of party general secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala. The firm had also worked for former Rajasthan deputy chief minister and Gehlot's bete noire Sachin Pilot.

Rajasthan goes to polls on November 25 and the results will be declared on December 3. Apart from Gehlot's brand building, the agency also conducted surveys of potential Congress candidates.

After Gehlot's populist budget, DesignBoxed installed hoardings across Jaipur and other parts of the state showcasing the chief minister's welfare schemes.

The hoardings with lone pictures of Gehlot had antagonised Rajasthan Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasra and in-charge Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa who insisted that photographs of party's national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi too should have been there.

When the complaints of the apparent "mishandling" of the campaign by DesignBoxed reached Rahul Gandhi, he asked Gehlot to take the services of Kanugolu, who is already looking after the Congress party's election campaign and political strategy in many states as well as the national level.

However, Gehlot continued to retain the services of DesignBoxed much against the wishes of the Congress leadership.

Meanwhile, Kanugolu also conducted a survey of potential candidates on all the 200 seats in the state and handed over his list to Congress general secretary in-charge of the organisation KC Venugopal who in turn asked Gehlot to consider the names suggested by the poll strategist.

The party's central election committee (CEC) that met in Delhi on Wednesday discussed a list of 102 names and later cleared around 49 candidates.

The single names on the remaining 53 seats irked Rahul Gandhi who is said to have questioned the role of the CEC if the leaders had on their own selected the probables. It is said that the Congress leadership also noticed a mismatch in Kanugolu's list and the one submitted by Gehlot on the recommendation of DesignBoxed.

At the meeting, Rahul Gandhi also asked the state leaders to address the mismatch in the two lists. The first list of names cleared by the CEC is now expected anytime soon.