Congress’s high command thought they had finally found a way and an appropriate constituency to field close aide of Rahul Gandhi and former JNUSU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar when it announced his candidature from Northeast Delhi for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. But it seems like that respite was temporary when local Congress leaders expressed their disapproval of the fielding of an “outsider” from the Northeast Delhi constituency.
The infighting among the Congress, which is already facing tough headwinds from a formidable BJP and in the wake of a tenuous opposition alliance called INDI they are part of, has reportedly escalated after a war of words erupted between Kanhaiya Kumar and Sandeep Dikshit, one of the eminent Delhi Congress leaders and the son of former CM Shiela Dikshit.
#Breaking
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) April 20, 2024
Congress infighting escalates over the candidature of #KanhaiyaKumar.
A meeting was called out by the DPCC president Arvinder Singh Lovely to discuss the future strategy of the Congress during which a war of words erupted between Kanhaiya Kumar and Sandeep Dikshit…:… pic.twitter.com/E6BnatZJDa
Arvinder Singh Lovely, the DPCC president, convened a meeting to deliberate on the Congress’s future strategy. However, tensions flared as Kanhaiya Kumar and Sandeep Dikshit engaged in a verbal dispute during the session.
According to a report by Times Now, there is a rift within the Congress party after Sandeep Dikshit alleged that Kanhaiya Kumar’s candidature from Northeast Delhi was pulling down the party’s performance elsewhere, prompting a showdown between the two leaders. A verbal spat ensued between the two leaders after Kumar allegedly responded to Dikshit’s allegations that his candidature hurt the party’s performance elsewhere in the national capital.
Congress announced Kanhaiya Kumar’s candidature from Northeast Delhi earlier this week, weeks after finalising the seat-sharing formula in Bihar, the state from which Kumar originally hails. Kumar, who fought from a CPI(M) ticket in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, suffered an ignominious loss to BJP’s Giriraj Singh from the Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency. He later joined the Congress party and seemed to have forged a close bond with Rahul Gandhi, senior Congress leader and former party president.
Congress lost the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat to RJD as a part of the INDI alliance, raising speculations over where would the Congress party field Kumar from in the upcoming general polls. His growing closeness to Rahul Gandhi made local Congress units of states nervous over the possibility that they might be asked to accommodate Kumar after relinquishing the Begusarai seat to the RJD.
His growing closeness to Rahul Gandhi made local Congress units of states nervous over the possibility of being asked to accommodate Kumar after Congress relinquished the Begusarai seat to the RJD. The latest rift within the Congress party highlights the challenges it faces, not just from a redoubtable BJP but from its cadres and leaders, who are up in arms against each other as the national capital prepares for the polls.
