Kanhaiya who? Why would RJD ignore an alumnus leader of JNU joined by ally Congress?

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Patna: In the 2020 Bihar Assembly elections, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), which is the flagship party of the Grand Alliance, did not call on former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar – a member of the Communist Party of India (CPI). its candidates.

Kanhaiya campaigned for 3 CPI candidates contesting under the Grand Alliance. With the former student leader now with the Congress, another Grand Alliance ally, the RJD has no intention of changing its stand on the Begusarai native in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

RJD members say former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, son of party chief Lalu Prasad, is the only leader they want to work with.

RJD national vice president Shivanand Tiwari told ThePrint, referring to the 2020 campaign, “RJD candidates and even Congress candidates wanted Tejashwi Yadav to be campaigning for him and not Kanhaiya.” “There is no contest between Tejashwi and Kanhaiya. What Congress does to Kanhaiya is his problem.

While attending the Congress on Tuesday, Kanhaiya had spoken about the need to save the party to “save the small ships”. He said The ideological war in the country can be fought and fought only under the leadership of Congress. “It is a historic responsibility on my shoulders that I cannot deny.”

Tiwari later made fun of Kanhaiya and said that It was his “historic duty” to save the Congress, the Grand Old Party should make him its president.

The apparent disdain for Kanhaiya, 34, is echoed by other RJD leaders.

“Who is Kanhaiya Kumar? Never heard of him. For us, it is only Tejashwi Yadav,” said RJD MLA Bhai Virendra, a close confidante of Tejashwi.

Read also: Congress has to be saved for ‘small ships’ to survive, says Kanhaiya Kumar on joining party

‘Kanhaiya partition’

Kanhaiya Kumar emerged on the national stage in the light of the 2016 protest march in JNU, which was organized to mark the third anniversary of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru. He and some other students were later charged with sedition for raising “anti-national” slogans in the march.

He made his political debut in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections as a CPI candidate from Begusarai, where he lost to BJP’s Union Minister Giriraj Singh. The CPI had fielded Kanhaiya from Begusarai after the Grand Alliance was left out of the seat-sharing calculations.

In the anti-Narendra Modi image across the country, Kanhaiya Kumar comes down heavily on Tejashwi, this is just one problem. The RJD accused him of dividing the Muslim vote in the 2019 election, which it believes led to the defeat of his candidate Tanveer Hasan, an MLC.

While Kanhaiya lost the election With a margin of over 4.2 lakh votes, the RJD’s voteshare was even lower. The RJD was shocked not because of the defeat in the Modi wave, but because Kanhaiya had managed to get around 50 per cent split. of Muslim votes, while his own caste – the Bhumihars – lagged far behind Giriraj Singh.

“But what Kanhaiya did after the election sent danger signals. He visited Muslim-dominated areas of Bihar – like East Champaran, Kishanganj and Purnia – when the anti-CAA movement was at its peak and projected himself as the savior of Muslims and did not make a single reference to Tejashwi Yadav,” said RJD’s said a leader.

“As a result, Tejashwi also went to places and addressed gatherings in Muslim dominated areas against CAA and showed solidarity with Muslims. According to our sources, Kanhaiya’s visit was sponsored by Congress and was aimed at wooing Muslims.

The RJD is keen on its alliance with the Congress as it believes that its Muslim vote could be dented by the Congress contesting alone. This is a lesson Lalu learned the hard way in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections, when he contested with the Lok Janshakti Party (LJP), leaving the Congress to fight alone.

Lalu won just four of the state’s 40 seats, the Congress ensuring the defeat of RJD candidates in several seats due to vote-sharing.

However, the RJD leaves seats for the Congress where upper castes dominate. In the past, several upper caste leaders of the Congress have demanded that their party should contest elections alone.

A senior RJD leader said, “In the case of Kanhaiya Kumar, we have seen that he is unable to make a dent in the upper caste vote, but manages to harass the Muslim vote.”

RJD leaders say that Kanhaiya’s image of ‘tukde-tukde gang’ has got stuck and otherwise it will be difficult to convince voters.

“Kanhaiya can be a better speaker and educated than Tejashwi Yadav. He may get praise for his speeches. But when it comes to vote, Tejashwi is far ahead,” the leader said.

Relief to CPI

Meanwhile, Bihar Congress leaders believe that Kanhaiya’s arrival will help the party. Congress leader Madan Mohan Jha said, “He is a youth icon and his entry will help the Congress, but it is for the high command to decide what role they want to give him.”

As far as the CPI leaders of Bihar are concerned, there is an atmosphere of relief after Kanhaiya’s departure. Party leaders had earlier accused Kanhaiya of ignoring traditional party leaders and relying more on his JNU friends.

“Bihar CPI existed before Kanhaiya Kumar and will exist without Kanhaiya. There is a burden on Kanhaiya. He picked up the songsfreedom from capitalism (liberation from capitalism)‘. Today, he went and sat down with PunjabCPI state secretary Ram Naresh Pandey said.

(Edited by Sunanda Ranjan)

Read also: In Congress, command has no control – Punjab or Delhi, Sidhu or Amarinder

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