Tag: Kanhaiya Kumar

  • kanhaiya kumar: Lok Sabha Polls: Congress fields Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi, Channi gets ticket from Jalandhar

    The All India Congress Committee (AICC) on Sunday released a fresh list of candidates for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.

    The party has fielded Kanhaiya Kumar from North East Delhi to contest against BJP candidate Manoj Tiwari. Meanwhile, Charanjit Singh Channi has been given ticket from Jalandhar.

    Other candidates in the list were JP Agarwal, Udit Raj, Gurjeet Singh Aujla, Amar Singh, Jeet Mohinder Singh Sidhu, Sukhpal Singh Khaira, Dr Dharamvir Gandhi and Ujjwal Rewati Raman Singh. AICC candidate JP Agarwal will contest from Chandni Chowk against BJP’s Praveen Khandelwal. Udit Raj will contest against BJP leader Yogendra Chandolia from North-West Delhi.

  • Kanhaiya Kumar, Pawan Khera among ‘Bharat Yatris’ to walk 3,500 km during Congress’ foot march

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Congress leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Pawan Khera and former Punjab minister Vijay Inder Singla feature in a tentative list of “Bharat Yatris”, who will walk throughout the 3,500-km stretch of the party’s Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir “Bharat Jodo Yatra” starting September 7.

    Former Youth Congress president Keshav Chandra Yadav and Vaibhav Walia, secretary of the communication department of the Uttarakhand Congress, besides a host of other young leaders will walk all along the yatra.

    Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will flag off the yatra with a rally from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu in the evening of September 7.

    Gandhi will also walk for most part of the yatra while taking breaks for canvassing for the upcoming Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections.

    The Congress has drawn up a tentative list that features 117 leaders categorised as “Bharat Yatris”.

    Chairman of the yatra organising committee Digvijaya Singh had earlier explained the concept of Bharat Yatris, saying they will walk the entire stretch of 3,500 km passing through 12 states.

    Kanhaiya Kumar is a former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and Khera is the chairman of the Congress’s media department.

    A number of women workers and leaders of the party will also be Bharat Yatris, sources said.

    NEW DELHI: Congress leaders Kanhaiya Kumar, Pawan Khera and former Punjab minister Vijay Inder Singla feature in a tentative list of “Bharat Yatris”, who will walk throughout the 3,500-km stretch of the party’s Kanyakumari-to-Kashmir “Bharat Jodo Yatra” starting September 7.

    Former Youth Congress president Keshav Chandra Yadav and Vaibhav Walia, secretary of the communication department of the Uttarakhand Congress, besides a host of other young leaders will walk all along the yatra.

    Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi will flag off the yatra with a rally from Kanyakumari in Tamil Nadu in the evening of September 7.

    Gandhi will also walk for most part of the yatra while taking breaks for canvassing for the upcoming Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat Assembly elections.

    The Congress has drawn up a tentative list that features 117 leaders categorised as “Bharat Yatris”.

    Chairman of the yatra organising committee Digvijaya Singh had earlier explained the concept of Bharat Yatris, saying they will walk the entire stretch of 3,500 km passing through 12 states.

    Kanhaiya Kumar is a former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) and Khera is the chairman of the Congress’s media department.

    A number of women workers and leaders of the party will also be Bharat Yatris, sources said.

  • CBI is being used to strangulate opposition, says Kanhaiya Kumar

    By PTI

    NAGPUR: Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was being misused by the Union government to “strangulate” the opposition.

    Kumar was here to take part in a function organized by the Congress to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi.

    To a question, he said probe agencies such as the CBI are meant to protect the country, but the present BJP-led Union government was misusing it to protect its power.

    The CBI was being used to strangulate the opposition, the Congress leader said.

    On Friday, the central agency raided Delhi deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s residence and 30 other locations over allegations of corruption in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy.

    NAGPUR: Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Saturday alleged that the Central Bureau of Investigation was being misused by the Union government to “strangulate” the opposition.

    Kumar was here to take part in a function organized by the Congress to mark the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi.

    To a question, he said probe agencies such as the CBI are meant to protect the country, but the present BJP-led Union government was misusing it to protect its power.

    The CBI was being used to strangulate the opposition, the Congress leader said.

    On Friday, the central agency raided Delhi deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia’s residence and 30 other locations over allegations of corruption in the implementation of the Delhi excise policy.

  • Agnipath scheme in a real sense is a scam meant to inflame India’s youth, says Kanhaiya Kumar

    By Online Desk

    Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar dubbed the Agnipath military recruitment scheme a ‘scam,’ and denied the role of opposition in encouraging violence, as claimed by the BJP, against the scheme. 

    Speaking to NDTV, he said the root cause of the protest has to be understood first.

    “This Agnipath scheme in real sense is a scam meant to inflame the youths of the country. With full responsibility, I am saying this because in the past three days one can view the development. Isn’t the government aware of the outcome of such announcements and schemes? Have not they done any assessment of the reaction of the youth? The damage control work that they are doing today in a jiffy, why haven’t they done it before announcing the scheme?” he questioned.

    Kanhaiya Kumar noted that the reason for this whole crisis is that the unemployment rate of Bihar is double that of the national figure. The jobless youths are left with no other alternatives. The government is not serious about addressing the unemployment problem in the country. 

    On the government’s plea that it wants to reduce the army’s average age, Kanhaiya said it wants to reduce the number and not the “age”. The truth is that this government wants to reduce spending and it is playing with the security of the country.

    “Every year 50,000 army personnel were recruited. The recruitment did not happen for the past two years because of Covid-19. The government has answers to how it is going to clear the backlog of 28 lakh vacant government posts,” he said.

    ALSO READ | PM Modi will have to withdraw ‘Agnipath’ scheme, it’s weakening the army: Rahul Gandhi

    In his address in Bengaluru, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “many decisions/reforms may seem unfair in the beginning but later they help in nation-building. Many decisions/reforms benefit the country, they lead us to new goals and new resolutions.”

    Commenting on the PM’s address, Kanhaiya said, “I was hoping that the PM would appeal to the youth for peace. He will appeal to the youth to stop the violence and not to damage public property and the government would address their issues but no such appeal was made.” 

    Referring to the ongoing protests, Kanhaiya said, “Nobody protested when lemon was sold at 150 rupees or when there was oxygen scarcity; the same people of Bihar walked 1000 miles along railway tracks and highway to reach Bihar during Covid-19, nor did they set trains on fire. When the value of rupees dipped with respect to dollars, have you seen any violence? Or in any petrol pump for price hike? The government has snatched today’s youth’s dream. One revolutionary poet has written it’s dangerous to kill one’s dream.”

    “People never come out against the government. When the trust was broken, they oppose. When the Annadata’s hypocrisy was broken, the protest came to the fore. Similarly, two crore jobs were promised to the youth. When that didn’t happen, there was opposition. The youth feel that they are being cheated so they came on the road. If it is the opposition then who listens to the opposition? If the opposition was heard, the BJP would not have been running the government in the country. The youth feel that the government is cheating on them,” he added.

    AGNIPATH EXPLAINER: All you need to know about the scheme

    Kanhaiya was of the impression that the people of this country had trusted the PM. “On his appeal, they even lighted lamps, banged plates with the hope if Modi is saying, it may be for some good but the government reneged on the promise of doubling farmer’s income and implemented farm’s law to benefit the merchant, the people now got the messages that they should not rely on him.”

    Kanhaiya appealed to the youth of the country not to damage private, and public property. “The damage of the private or government property is ultimately the country’s property and it’s our responsibility to safeguard it. It can be done not only by being an army man but also as a citizen, we have to protect it. Fight for your justice, but follow the path of truth and non-violence.”

  • Bypoll lessons: Big crowds at rallies hardly convert into votes in Bihar

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI:  Surging crowds at election rallies, especially in states like Bihar, are hardly a barometer of political temperature.

    It became clear when the results of the Assembly by-elections to Kusheshwar Asthan and Tarapur came on Nov 2. 

    Opposition RJD and Congress star campaigners had drawn huge crowds. However, this did not convert into votes.  

    RJD chief Lalu Prasad campaigned in the bypolls after a gap of about six years.

    The result: the RJD candidate from Kusheshwar Asthan was defeated by the ruling JD-U by a margin of more than 12,000 votes. In Tarapur too, the JD-U won.

    Congress leader Kanhaiya Kumar and others also campaigned for three days. In both constituencies, the Congress candidates forfeited their deposits. 

    The most striking similarity among Bihar’s three eligible bachelor politicians — Chirag Paswan, Tejashwi Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar — is that they draw crowds, but don’t bring in votes. 

    “Theirs is a model of hurling loud accusations. Secondly, they are largely inaccessible to the common people,” said an observer.

    Sociologist Nirmal Kumar says states like Bihar, West Bengal and UP where you have a vast population suffering in poverty, the people generally go out to listen to big politicians at their rallies. 

    “Lalu, his son Tejashwi, Chirag Paswan, Kanhaiya Kumar and CM Nitish Kumar did well in campaigning. Even when Lalu threatened to do an ‘immersion’ (visarjan) of the Nitish government in the bypolls, Nitish simply countered by a well thought-after line: “He (Lalu) can do nothing except getting me killed, when he wants.” 

    Nitish’s one-liner refreshed the people’s memories about the 15-year reign of ‘jungle raj’ of Lalu-Rabri,” says Arun Kumar Pandey, a political analyst.

    Meanwhile, Nitish on Tuesday asserted that results of the just-concluded by-elections won by his JD(U), were a resounding rejection of the RJD founded and headed by his arch-rival Lalu Prasad who betrayed arrogance and a lack of humility.

    Kumar was talking to reporters at the state headquarters of the JD(U) where he joined a function organised to felicitate the victorious debutants Ganesh Bharti and Rajiv Kumar Singh who respectively retained for the party Kusheshwar Asthan (SC) and Tarapur assembly constituencies.

    “The by-polls were a sad occasion for us as these were necessitated by the deaths of our sitting MLAs. I have always held that people’s will is supreme. They have reposed their trust in us. We will continue serving them as long as the trust continues,” Kumar said.

    For Kumar, the by-poll outcome has come as a big relief, a year after his party was drubbed in the assembly polls though he returned as the chief minister, enjoying full support of allies.

    “Our candidates belonged to the JD(U). But the entire NDA backed them solidly, down to the grassroots level,” said Kumar.

    Kumar was also asked about the failure of Prasad, who had plunged into campaign himself, despite old age and ill-health, and claimed that the RJD’s victory in the by-polls would trigger a “stampede” in the NDA and pave way for a change of guard.

    ‘What can I say about them? What type of language did they use during the elections? There lies the difference. We believe in the supremacy of people. They (Prasad and his family) believe in lording over everybody else. People have made their preference clear, though,” Kumar said.

    Prasad, who had been the chief minister himself in the 1990s, was succeeded by his homemaker wife Rabri Devi when a charge-sheet in the fodder scam caused him to step down.

    His wife occupied the top post for eight years until being voted out of power in 2005.

    Convicted in a number of fodder scam cases, Prasad now stand disqualified from contesting elections himself though his younger son and heir apparent Tejashwi Yadav has been repeatedly called the “chief ministerial” candidate of the RJD.

    (With PTI Inputs)

  • Congress’ exit from allinace with RJD move to revive party in Bihar

    Express News Service

    PATNA: With the entry of trio-Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel in Bihar politics, the Congress party took an exit from its political alliance with the RJD in Bihar on Friday. The party made an announcement that it will not onlt contest in the bypolls alone but also contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.

    The turning point in Congresss political strategy happened when Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel reached Bihar as star campaigners to party’s candidates in upcoming bypolls.

    The discomfort between Bihar’s main opposition RJD and the Congress Party became evident soon after the induction of Kanhaiya Kumar into the Congress Party.  

    The Congress Party is staking claim on the Kusheshwar Asthan Assembly seat in Darbhanga, elections for which will be held on October 30.

    The discord in the Grand Alliance also came to the fore recently when the Congress sought to field its candidate for bypoll to Kusheshwar Asthan – a seat which it had contested in the 2020 state elections, in line with the Grand Alliance’s seat-sharing pact – but the RJD went ahead and named its nominees from both the constituencies.

    General Secretary of AICC and senior Congress leader of Bihar Tariq Anwar said “The assembly by-elections in two seats in have definitely given a lesson that the Congress should now stand on its own feet. It will not be appropriate to depend on the crutches of any other party for a long time”.

    “The Congress Party is fully geared up with its leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar and others to register victory on both the assembly seats in Kusheshwarasthan and Tarapur. Our party is not in friendly fight with the RJD. Rather, we are fighting to win with the massive supports of people,” said Bhakat Charan Das, the state in-charge of Bihar Pradesh Congress Party.

    Enthused at the arrival of party’s trio-Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel in Bihar for campaigning as start campaigners, Das announced that the Congress Party will contest on all 40 LS seats in Bihar in 2024 alone.

    “The Congress Party is preparing itself for the next LS elections to take on the NDA. Since our party is the grand old national party, our responsibility is to save the nation and save the state also”, Das said, accusing the RJD of having betrayed the alliance with RJD in the Grand Alliance.

    Adopting a tit-for-tat stand against the RJD, Das told the media that if the RJD can not give the Congress Party respect, how can the RJD expect the same from Congress party?

    He categorically denied that the Congress party and RJD were in friendly fight in the upcoming bypolls.

    Putting faith in new trioof the Congress, Das said that Kanhaiya, Jignesh and Patel will certainly strengthen the party.

    Kanhaiya Kumar, speaking on Friday, for the first time after joining Congress Party, asked the people to save freedom by being with the Congress Party.

    According to sources, the RJD was never in favour of Kanhaiya’s entry into the Congress Party as he was seen with a potential to emerge as a rival against Tejashwi Yadav.

    In Bihar’s politics, Kanhaiya Kumar has entered as the third bachelor politician after Tejashwi Yadav and Chirag Paswan, who pulls the crowd.

    According to Dr Nawal Kishor-national spokesperson of RJD, the Bihar assembly held in 2000, February 2005 and October 2005, the RJD had won the Kusheshwar Asthan seat.

    Meanwhile, sources said the possibility for forging a new alliance of RJD with LJP(Ram Vilas), led by Chirag Paswan, has increased more after the splits in alliance with the Congress Party.

  • Congress’ exit from alliance with RJD move to revive party in Bihar

    Express News Service

    PATNA: With the entry of trio-Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel in Bihar politics, the Congress party took an exit from its political alliance with the RJD in Bihar on Friday. The party made an announcement that it will not only contest in the bypolls alone but also contest all 40 Lok Sabha seats in 2024.

    The turning point in Congress’ political strategy happened when Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel reached Bihar as star campaigners to party’s candidates in upcoming bypolls.

    The discomfort between Bihar’s main opposition RJD and the Congress Party became evident soon after the induction of Kanhaiya Kumar into the Congress Party.  

    The Congress Party is staking claim on the Kusheshwar Asthan Assembly seat in Darbhanga, elections for which will be held on October 30.

    The discord in the Grand Alliance also came to the fore recently when the Congress sought to field its candidate for bypoll to Kusheshwar Asthan – a seat which it had contested in the 2020 state elections, in line with the Grand Alliance’s seat-sharing pact – but the RJD went ahead and named its nominees from both the constituencies.

    General Secretary of AICC and senior Congress leader of Bihar Tariq Anwar said “The assembly by-elections in two seats in have definitely given a lesson that the Congress should now stand on its own feet. It will not be appropriate to depend on the crutches of any other party for a long time”.

    “The Congress Party is fully geared up with its leaders like Kanhaiya Kumar and others to register victory on both the assembly seats in Kusheshwarasthan and Tarapur. Our party is not in friendly fight with the RJD. Rather, we are fighting to win with the massive supports of people,” said Bhakat Charan Das, the state in-charge of Bihar Pradesh Congress Party.

    Enthused at the arrival of party’s trio-Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani and Hardik Patel in Bihar for campaigning as start campaigners, Das announced that the Congress Party will contest on all 40 LS seats in Bihar in 2024 alone.

    “The Congress Party is preparing itself for the next LS elections to take on the NDA. Since our party is the grand old national party, our responsibility is to save the nation and save the state also”, Das said, accusing the RJD of having betrayed the alliance with RJD in the Grand Alliance.

    Adopting a tit-for-tat stand against the RJD, Das told the media that if the RJD can not give the Congress Party respect, how can the RJD expect the same from Congress party?

    He categorically denied that the Congress party and RJD were in friendly fight in the upcoming bypolls.

    Putting faith in new trioof the Congress, Das said that Kanhaiya, Jignesh and Patel will certainly strengthen the party.

    Kanhaiya Kumar, speaking on Friday, for the first time after joining Congress Party, asked the people to save freedom by being with the Congress Party.

    According to sources, the RJD was never in favour of Kanhaiya’s entry into the Congress Party as he was seen with a potential to emerge as a rival against Tejashwi Yadav.

    In Bihar’s politics, Kanhaiya Kumar has entered as the third bachelor politician after Tejashwi Yadav and Chirag Paswan, who pulls the crowd.

    According to Dr Nawal Kishor-national spokesperson of RJD, the Bihar assembly held in 2000, February 2005 and October 2005, the RJD had won the Kusheshwar Asthan seat.

    Meanwhile, sources said the possibility for forging a new alliance of RJD with LJP(Ram Vilas), led by Chirag Paswan, has increased more after the splits in alliance with the Congress Party.

  • Nitish aide sceptical of Kanhaiya Kumar’s move of joining Congress

    By PTI

    PATNA: A key aide of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday cast doubts over Kanhaiya Kumar’s induction into the Congress yielding any benefits to either the young leader or the party which seems riddled with insurmountable crises.

    Ashok Choudhary, who was himself a dynamic president of the state Congress a few years ago before being done in by a factional feud that played itself out on the streets, nonetheless wished the former JNU student leader well.

    “Kanhaiya is a young man from Bihar and my best wishes are with him,” said Chaudhary, a powerful member of the state cabinet on whom the former JNUSU president had called on here a few months ago intensifying speculations about the ex-student leader’s plans to quit the moribund CPI.

    Choudhary, however, wondered “What future can he (Kanhaiya) look forward to in a party in which there is something fundamentally wrong. Look at what is happening in Punjab. They humiliated Capt Amarinder Singh, who has decided to quit. And they seem unable to appease Sidhu on the other hand”.

    He also cited recent crossovers by a host of prominent Congress leaders like Jyotiraditya Scindia and Jitin Prasad and pointed to dissatisfaction among the old guard who are being referred to as “G-23” and “frustrated” young faces like Sachin Pilot in Rajasthan.

    “So, what benefit a party in such a mess can expect with the induction of one or two people. And what prospects can the new entrants hope for in such a scenario?”, he asked.

    Notably, Choudhary had joined JD(U) in 2018 after having burnt his bridges with the Congress.

    He had earned plaudits after the 2015 assembly election when the Congress had contested in alliance with JD(U) and RJD and performed well.

    He was inducted into the cabinet from the Congress quota but factionalism reared its head no sooner than Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA in July, 2017 citing irreconcilable differences with the RJD.

    Choudhary’s detractors accused him of working at the behest of the chief minister to “break” the party which led to his removal from the BPCC chief’s post.

    Pictures of Choudhary, defending himself before the camera, teary-eyed, had made headlines.

    He had alleged that the national general secretary in-charge in those days, C P Joshi, was in cahoots with the BPCC “lobby” which was uneasy over his rise in the party.

    Born to late Mahavir Choudhary, a senior Congress leader of his time, Ashok Choudhary, then an MLC, finally made the much-anticipated crossover in March, 2018.

    He joined JD(U) along with two other party legislators, effecting a split in the Congress in the legislative council.

  • Kanhaiya Kumar like another Navjot Sidhu who would destroy Congress: RJD

    By PTI

    MUZAFFARPUR: Bihar’s main opposition party RJD on Friday mocked Kanhaiya Kumar’s induction into the Congress, saying that the former JNU student is like “another Navjot Singh Sidhu” who would “destroy” the grand old party.

    Ridiculing the Congress by calling it a sinking ship, senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari said that Kumar’s joining won’t make any difference to the party.

    Referring to the CPI turncoat’s statement that “Congress is a big ship that needs to be saved”, Tiwari said, “He is just like another Navjot Singh Sidhu who will further destroy the party.

    ” “Kanhaiya Kumar’s induction won’t make any difference.

    He can’t save the party.

    Congress is a sinking ship and it has no future,” the RJD leader told reporters.

    RJD sources said that the party is unhappy with the fact that Kumar was inducted into the Congress without consulting the Tejashwi Yadav-led party.

    The Congress is a part of the RJD-led opposition alliance Mahagathbandhan that fought the 2020 Bihar assembly elections against the NDA.

    Bihar Congress leaders declined to comment on the matter.

  • Will Kanhaiya Kumar’s induction into Congress lead to ‘cold war’ with Tejashwi in Bihar? 

    Express News Service

    NEW DELHI: Will the entry of firebrand youth leader Kanhaiya Kumar into the Congress emerge as a threat to the growing influence of the RJD’s chief ministerial face Tejashwi Yadav in Bihar? Will Kumar challenge Tejashwi’s political hegemony within the Mahagathbandhan? Or has he been brought in to rescue the Congress from being eclipsed by a regional party like the RJD, reportedly on the suggestion of political strategist Prashant Kishor? 

    Whatever be the reason, Kanhaiya’s induction into the Congress has caused ripples within the RJD and the political corridors of Bihar. 

    Kanhaiya was fielded by the CPI, an ally of the Mahagathbandhan, in the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Begusarai against the RJD’s Tanveer Hussain. Despite his fiery campaign speeches against the ruling dispensation, Kanhaiya had lost to BJP candidate Giriraj Singh by over 4,22,000 votes from a constituency that is still considered as a citadel of the Left. 

    “There is no comparison between Tejashwi Yadav and Kanhaiya Kumar. Yadav is a leader who has never been in controversies like Kanhaiya Kumar for his ‘anti-national’ comments. Why should we take him seriously when we have a leader like Tejashwi Yadav who has aspirations for the state and its people,” said a senior RJD leader requesting anonymity. 

    Another senior leader of the RJD Bhai Virendra Kumar refused to recognise Kanhaiya Kumar the day he joined the Congress. 

    Senior Congress leader Madan Mohan Jha, meanwhile, said that Kanhaiya’s induction into the Grand Old Party will certainly give an edge to state politics.   Experts believe that the induction could lead to a low-key ‘cold war’ between the two young leaders. There will be friction of sorts in the coming days as both Kumar and Yadav are articulate crowd-pullers who will work towards taking their parties ahead of each other. While Tejashwi is known to have a pull over the Yadav and Muslim vote banks, the former JNUSU president has gained people’s trust not just in Bihar but also in other parts of the country. He is well educated, known for his oratorical skills and attacks his political opponents with logic and charisma. On the other hand, Tejashwi also speaks well and pulls massive crowds each time he addresses a public meeting. 

    However, when it comes to leadership, Tejashwi Yadav is more experienced as seen in the last assembly and Lok Sabha elections where he led the party in the absence of his father Lalu Prasad, a political veteran. Kanhaiya, on the contrary, has never led a political party independently except taking to canvassing in Begusarai during the Lok Sabha elections. His electioneering has made news for a variety of reasons, especially on occasions when he targets PM Modi and his policies. 

    “In such a situation, Kanhaiya’s entry into the Congress and his possible role within the party in Bihar might be making RJD uncomfortable now,” said Arun Kumar, a political analyst in Patna.

    Recently, RJD spokesperson Mrityunjay Tiwari told the media that Kanhaiya Kumar has never been an issue for the party.

    Dr. RK Verma, another political analyst, said that if the Congress assigns any role to Kanhaiya Kumar in the party for Bihar, he will have a direct impact on Tejashwi Yadav’s political hegemony within the Mahagathbandhan. “This is because Kanhaiya Kumar is also a well-heard young leader and will naturally project the policies of the Congress in an argumentative and logical way,” he opined.

    According to sources in political circles, the RJD had fielded its candidate to make the contest a triangular one. This move boomeranged and indirectly helped BJP’s Giriraj Singh to win the seat.”Had Kanhaiya Kumar won Begusarai on the basis of his popularity and national identity which he gained after the JNU controversy, he would have certainly played down the political leverage of Tejashwi Yadav. So the RJD played a trick to field its candidate and prevented Kanhaiya from reaching Parliament,” said a political observer.