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Jignesh Mevani, Kanhaiya Kumar to join Congress on September 28
The confirmation from the youth leader came following hectic parleys with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi for over a month
Ahmedabad Gujarat Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani announced on Saturday that he would join the Congress, along with former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, in New Delhi on September 28.
Setting at rest speculations, Mevani, who is an independent Dalit MLA from Gujarat, told HT over telephone, “Yes, Kanhaiya and I are joining the Congress party in Delhi on September 28.”
The confirmation from the youth leader came following hectic parleys with Gandhi for over a month, people familiar with the development said.
Asked why he had decided to join the Congress, Mevani said, “This would be explained at a press conference on that day.”
On reports that the youth leaders would join the Congress in the presence of party leader Rahul Gandhi, he said: “That would be the party’s decision.”
In 2017, Mevani was elected as an Independent from a reserved Scheduled Caste seat of Vadgam in North Gujarat’s Banaskantha district. Held by the Congress party, the seat was vacated for him.
The Gujarat Dalit leader had recently inaugurated the state’s largest 13,000-litre oxygen plant by any elected representative, after a struggle in Gujarat high court, where he sought a direction to the state government to allow legislators to use their discretionary MLA funds for Covid care. The Congress later joined him with a similar petition, prompting the state government to give the nod for all 182 MLAs.
People close to Mevani claimed that for over a year, he was weighing several options, including joining the Aam Aadmi Party of which he was earlier a spokesperson. He was also exploring national fronts of like-minded youth leaders.
He was reportedly in constant touch with Kumar and Patidar leader Hardik Patel, the people cited above added.
Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Paresh Dhanani said, “All like-minded leaders and people are welcome in the Congress fold. Jignesh and Kanhaiya are natural allies of our party and the party vacated the Vadgam seat and wholeheartedly backed Jignesh.”
Gujarat BJP spokesperson Yamal Vyas said, “It doesn’t matter to us who joins any Opposition party. We are always prepared to fight any election on the strength of our development works for the people.”
Kumar had joined the Communist Party of India (CPI) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and had unsuccessfully contested from Begusarai in Bihar against Giriraj Singh of the BJP.
According to political scientist Ghanshyam Shah, “The overall political situation in this country is so unfortunate that individuals like Kanhaiya and Jignesh are unable to survive alone. These two are young idealistic politicians who are caught in a bind. Keeping political ambition and simultaneously fighting for ideology create contradictions going further. But they have little option.”
Ahmedabad-based political analyst Vidyut Joshi opined, “Jignesh is a natural ally of the Congress and he had no other option, whereas Kanhaiya belongs to the Left ideology and but this is more out of political wisdom to join the Congress.”
