Kanhaiya Kumar denies joining Congress, meets party leaders | Latest News India - Hindustan Times
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Kanhaiya Kumar denies joining Congress, meets party leaders

Sep 09, 2021 05:43 PM IST

There has been speculation in political circles about Kanhaiya switching sides after a censure motion was passed against him in the CPI meeting held at Hyderabad in the last week of January for indiscipline.

CPI leader and former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar has denied rumours that suggest he is planning to switch over to Congress following his meeting with a few Congress leaders.

People aware of the development within the Congress say that Kanhaiya Kumar had met Rahul Gandhi twice in the recent past and Prashant Kishor was present during both the meetings. (PTI PHOTO.)
People aware of the development within the Congress say that Kanhaiya Kumar had met Rahul Gandhi twice in the recent past and Prashant Kishor was present during both the meetings. (PTI PHOTO.)

“There is no truth in it. I am in mainstream politics and am a member of a registered national party. When in politics, one interacts with so many people. Currently, I am in Delhi to attend the party’s national executive,” said Kanhaiya, while talking to HT.

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People aware of the development within the Congress say that Kanhaiya had met Rahul Gandhi twice in the recent past. “Prashant Kishor was present during both the meetings. Negotiations are in the final stages,” claimed a Congress leader from Bihar, wishing not to be named.

Kanhaiya however, denied any such meeting. “What has fanned the rumours is my photograph with Congress leader Nadeem Jawed with whom I had lunch recently in Delhi. Nadeem Jawed is a former National President of NSUI, former General Secretary of Indian Youth Congress, former National President of Congress Minority Cell and Media Panelist. He posted our photographs on social media. As far as Prashant Kishore is concerned, we have been interacting often after my defeat in the Lok Sabha elections of 2019,” said Kanhaiya.

There has been speculation in political circles about Kanhaiya switching sides after a censure motion was passed against him in the CPI meeting held at Hyderabad in the last week of January for indiscipline.

The censure motion was taken up after Kanhaiya’s supporters had roughed up Indu Bhushan, the office secretary, in the party office at Patna on December 1. Local leaders said Bhushan was attacked because the Begusarai district council meeting had been postponed and Kanhaiya had not been informed about the change.

Congress leaders in the know said that Nadeem, former Congress MLA from Jaunpur has been given the responsibility of convincing the former JNU Students’ Union president and they had had several rounds of conversation.

Congress, which is losing ground in Bihar, is now desperately looking for leaders who can instill confidence in the party fold. Congress got 10 seats in the February 2005 assembly elections, which came down to 9 in October 2005. In the 2010 assembly elections, the Congress had to be content with just four seats. In the 2015 assembly elections, when the Congress became a part of the grand alliance with RJD and JD-U, the party won 27 seats. However, their tally again came down to 19 in the 2020 assembly polls. At the same time, in the Lok Sabha elections 2019, Congress got just one seat in Bihar.

The Congress has been eyeing Kanhaiya since last year when the CPI leader organized his Jana Gana Mana rally in Patna’s Gandhi Maidan on February 27. What surprised people was the presence of two Congress leaders -- MLAs Shakeel Ahmad Khan and Awadhesh Singh--- who shared the dais with him. Khan, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students’ Union president like Kanhaiya, insisted later that their presence there was only to support the cause as the rally was part of a campaign against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the proposed-then-denied National Register of Citizens (NRC.

To drive home his point that he was not getting close to Congress, the former JNU president cited the example of his meeting with the Bihar CM earlier this year. “When I met Nitish Kumar and a JD(U) minister earlier this year, there was speculation that I was joining JD(U). Why should I when they are in alliance with the BJP,” he reasoned.

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  • ABOUT THE AUTHOR
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    Vijay is chief of bureau, Patna. He has spent 21 years in journalism and covers political beats and public affairs.

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