Staff Reporter
Former president of JNU student union Kanhaiya Kumar and Dalit leader from Gujarat Jignesh Mevani today joined the Congress party in presence of party leader Rahul Gandhi at the All India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi.
The former student leader was earlier with the Communist Party of India (CPI), which he joined ahead of the 2019 general election. Kanhaiya then contested from his hometown Begusarai in Bihar against BJP’s Giriraj Singh of the BJP but failed to win.
An independent MLA from Gujarat’s Vadgam constituency, Mevani is key to the Congress’s poll arithmetic ahead of 2022’s Assembly poll in that state.
In the 2017 Gujarat Assembly poll, the Congress party did not field its candidate against Mevani in the Vadgam constituency.
The is speculation that Congress could give Kumar a role in Bihar state Congress and Mevani in Gujarat, which will go for elections by the end of next year.
The joining is taking place after some prominent Congress leaders left the party in recent months. While former Mahila Congress chief Sushmita Dev has joined the Trinamool Congres, former union minister Jitin Prasada is now in BJP. Veteran Goa Congress leader Luizinho Faleiro has also resigned from the party.
The resignation of youth leaders had caused some disquiet in the party and sections of the party feel that the induction of Kumar and Mevani will help send a positive message to the party rank and file.
The resignation of youth leaders had caused some disquiet in the party and sections of the party feel that the induction of Kumar and Mevani will help send a positive message to the party rank and file.