‘The other Sidhu’: RJD says Kanhaiya will destroy Congress

People familiar with the developments told news agency PTI that the party was unhappy that Kumar was inducted into the Congress without any consultation with the RJD.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) compared Kanhaiya Kumar to Navjot Singh Sidhu and said on Friday that his induction would lead to the destruction of the grand old party. The RJD called him the ‘other Navjot Singh Sidhu’ and also said the party is ‘sinking ship’.

AICC General Secretary and MP KC Venugopal hugs new Congress member Kanhaiya Kumar, at AICC in New Delhi earlier this week.  (PTI PHOTO)

“He is just another Navjot Singh Sidhu who will further destroy the party,” senior RJD leader Shivanand Tiwari was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“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,” Tiwari further said. Tiwari’s comment was in reference to Kanhaiya Kumar’s previous comment where he said that Congress is a ‘big ship’ that needs ‘saving’.

People familiar with the developments told news agency PTI that the party was unhappy that Kumar was inducted into the Congress without any consultation with the RJD. The Congress was an alliance partner of the RJD in the Mahagathbandhan which fought the Bihar elections in 2020 against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Former JNU students' union president Kanhaiya Kumar joined the Congress on Tuesday. After his induction to the party, he said the nation cannot be ‘saved’ without ‘saving’ its oldest party. “I have decided to join the country's oldest and most democratic party because I feel along with the lakhs of youths that if the Congress is not saved, the country will not be saved,” Kanhaiya said at the time of his induction.

Kanhaiya was inducted into the party in presence of Congress senior leaders KC Venugopal, Randeep Surjewala, Pawan Bansal and Hardik Patel. He was also joined by Jignesh Mevani, who said that he would fight the next elections under the Congress symbol.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi before Kumar’s induction to the party participated in a small programme with Kanhaiya and Mevani.