Kanhaiya Kumar, the member of the ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’, is all set to be the candidate of the Communist Party of India from Bihar’s Begusarai for the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
According to reports, the decision to field him as a candidate from Begusarai, once a communist stronghold, was taken by the Left parties on Saturday, a day after Kanhaiya Kumar was ditched by the alliance of the opposition coalition in Bihar, who had earlier promised him a ticket from the alliance. Kumar, who is an ultra-left wing freelance protestor, will be the joint candidate of the Left parties from Begusarai but will be contesting on a CPI ticket.
Kanhaiya Kumar is currently on bail for allegedly chanting anti-national slogans at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in New Delhi in 2016. The Delhi Police Special Cell had submitted 1200-page charge-sheet in January this year against Kanhaiya Kumar and other left-wing students of the JNU.
Kanhaiya Kumar was supposed to be the Mahagathbandhan candidate from Begusarai. However, the alliance of RJD and Congress did not leave any seats to the CPI and CPI-M. The Begusarai seat is now being contested by an RJD candidate against Union Minister Giriraj Singh, who has shifted his constituency from Nawada to Begusarai.
After a long tussle between the opposition parties over the distribution of seats, the Grand Alliance agreed on Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) contesting on 20 seats and Congress agreeing to contest only on 9 seats out of a total of 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state. Upendra Kushwaha’s RLSP has been given 5 seats while Jitan Ram Manjhi-led HAM-S has got three seats. The Vikasheel Insaaf Party has got three seats and the CPI-ML Liberation had been allotted one seat from the RJD quota.
Interestingly, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav is reportedly averse to any idea of promoting Kanhaiya Kumar as it may affect his political advancement in the future. As Kanhaiya Kumar has more political acumen and oratory skills than Tejashwi Yadav, the latter fears that he may one day outshine him in the state politics. Hence, Yadav has been conscious of his decision to not promote Kanhaiya Kumar in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Bihar, which has 40 parliamentary constituencies, goes to polls in seven phases starting from April 11 till the final phase scheduled on May 19. The BJP-JDU-LJP coalition is contesting under NDA coalition with BJP and JDU set to contest in 17 seats each, leaving six seats to Ram Vilas Paswan’s Lok Janshakti Party.
