Former JNU student leader Kanhaiya to contest LS polls from Begusarai on CPI ticket

In all probability, Kanhaiya Kumar, Former President of Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) is going to contest the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in 2019 from Begusarai constituency on Communist Party of India (CPI) ticket. At present, the BJP represents Begusari in the Lok Sabha. In 2014, the saffron party’s Bhola Singh won the seat by defeating RJD’s Tanveer Hasan by 58,000 votes.

Kumar will contest against the ruling JD(U)-BJP. Parties like the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nationalist Congress Party, Loktantrik Janata Dal and Hindustani Awam Morcha-Secular are are likely to Kumar’s candidature by not fielding any candidate against him.

Though the CPI is yet to make a formal announcement so far, but sources revealed that a consensus has evolved amongst CPI & allied parties to finalise Kanhaiya’s candidature. In his immediate reaction to PTI, Kanhaiya said, “”If the party (CPI) decides to nominate me as its candidate from Begusarai and other grand alliance partners also extend their support, then I don’t have any objection to it,” Kumar told PTI.”

Kanhaiya Kumar, then a student of JNU & President of JNUSU was arrested on charges of sedition in February 2016 for allegedly raising anti-national slogans.  He came to limelight during a JNU agitation the same year. He was also jailed along with Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya for a brief period. Kanhaiya was inducted into the 125-member national council of CPI during its convention in April. His mother works as an anganwadi worker while his father is a small farmer.