NEW DELHI: The CPI on Sunday announced the candidature of former JNU students’ union leader Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar, days after the party was left out of the RJD-led opposition alliance in the state.
The Communist Party of India (CPI), which was expecting to get the seat for Kumar as part of the ‘mahagathbandhan’ (grand alliance), has now decided to go alone.
“Kanhaiya Kumar will be our candidate from Begusarai seat. CPI(ML) has pledged their support to us too,” senior CPI leader D Raja said. Candidates for two more seats are yet to be finalised by the central leadership, he added.
State CPI secretary Satyanarayan Singh said the party had decided last week to field the former student leader in the Lok Sabha elections. “We wanted a secular democratic alliance to defeat the BJP,” he said.
As part of the seat-sharing pact of the ‘mahagathbandhan’, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation (CPI-ML), the biggest Left party in Bihar, got one seat from the Rashtriya Janata Dal’s (RJD) share of 20.
In Begusarai, Kumar will be pitted against the BJP’s Giriraj Singh. An influential upper caste Bhumihar leader, the Union minister has been shifted from his Nawada seat. The ‘mahagathbandhan’ is yet to announce its candidate.
Speaking to the media on Sunday, Kanhaiya Kumar said his fight will be against Giriraj Singh, not the RJD.
“People of Begusarai will defeat Giriraj Singh and the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) will be defeated across Bihar as the people have made up their minds to oust Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” he said.
Kumar came into limelight after the 2016 Jawaharlal Nehru University sedition controversy.
The student leader, accused of raising anti-India slogans on the varsity campus with nine others, has been charged with sedition by the Delhi Police. (Agencies)
