New Delhi: “I told the top leadership that I am ready to go to Bihar, but for a long time and not just to contest another election. We need to work hard to revive the Congress here”—these were the words of Kanhaiya Kumar last month as he addressed youth workers of the party in Begusarai district.
He was meeting Youth Congress functionaries and leaders of the party’s student wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) at his house in the district’s Bihat village for the first time in two years.
While not sharing his entire strategy, Kanhaiya motivated them to get active considering his plan to shift political base from Delhi to Bihar, Congress functionaries told ThePrint.
Kanhaiya had contested and lost the 2024 Lok Sabha election for the Congress from North East Delhi. Prior to that, in 2019, he had unsuccessfuly contested the general election from Begusarai on a Communist Party of India (CPI) ticket.
According to the functionaries, Kanhaiya is now looking to return to the political fray in Bihar, lead a state-wide padyatra and fight the state election due this year from one of the assembly seats in Begusarai district.
In the process, he will be a key face of the Congress in the assembly polls.
A senior AICC leader said the party’s top leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, wanted Kanhaiya active in Bihar and he was expected to soon be seen on the streets there.
“A statewide padyatra is also on the cards from the third week of March (after Holi) and Kanhaiya will have a major role in leading it. It may be considered as his ‘launchpad’ from the Congress,” the leader added.
Rahul Kumar, district president of the Youth Congress in Begusarai who met Kanhaiya during his visit, told ThePrint: “When we got to know that he is in town, we met him. Some other youth workers in Begusarai also met him. He is a big name for us. We want him to get active here. He has a good connect. It will be beneficial for the Congress in Bihar.”
At the meeting last month, Kanhaiya took feedback regarding the party activities in Begusarai. He also deputed a small team of NSUI workers to give him detailed feedback on his second visit to the district, likely to be held in the middle of March, the functionaries said.
An NSUI worker who attended the meeting said: “We have been asked to collect feedback from all seven assembly constituencies in Begusarai. We will talk to people of all age groups regarding local issues and unfullfilled promises of sitting MLAs. We have also been told to start preparations for a padyatra, which is tentatively starting from 16 March.”
When ThePrint reached out to Kanhaiya, his office confirmed about the proposed yatra but he was not available to comment on it as well as his chances of contesting the assembly polls.
“As of now, we are focussing on making our organisation stronger in all districts. It is not yet decided who will contest polls from where, but the party definitely wants all big faces to be active in Bihar. In the coming days, you will get to see big yatras and a massive protest against the state government,” Shahnawaz Alam, AICC secretary in-charge for Bihar, said.
Some functionaries in the Bihar Congress also believe that Kanhaiya’s absence from state politics since 2019 may hurt his comeback plan and it may not be a cakewalk for him.
“I do not remember when Kanhaiya was part of any political activity after the 2019 polls in Begusarai. He joined the Congress in 2021 but was not active in Bihar. Now, in his last visit here, he showed interest in returning to the district in front of some Youth Congress and NSUI workers,” a Congress leader from Begusarai told ThePrint.
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‘Kisan & Naujavan’
Kanhaiya rose to prominence after he was arrested in a sedition case in 2016 while serving as president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union. He was a member of the CPI then. In September 2021, he joined the Congress and was made AICC in-charge of NSUI in July 2023.
Kanhaiya is known as a crowd-puller owing to his oratory skills. He is also a permanent invitee to the Congress Working Committee (CWC), its highest decision-making forum.
As in-charge of the NSUI, he has, however, failed to make his mark and drawn criticism for his “autocratic” style of functioning.
AICC functionaries have now planned Kanhaiya’s re-entry into Bihar with the padyatra.
ThePrint has learnt that the proposed Yatra will be of at least three weeks and Rahul Gandhi may also join it for a day. While the dates are yet to be finalised, the motive behind the yatra is to increase awareness among youth regarding employment and among the farmers regarding local issues.
“Kisan & Naujavan” will be the central them of this yatra, a senior Congress functionary said.
“Kanhaiya is likely to contest the assembly polls but the seat has not been finalised yet. Begusarai has seven assembly constituencies and Kanhaiya’s village falls under Teghra assembly seat, where the current MLA is from the CPI. So, it depends on alliance negotiations and where there is space for him to contest from,” he added. “Of the seven seats, three (Bachhwara, Begusarai and Matihani) are with the NDA. So, maybe he will try for one of these.”
Another senior functionary told ThePrint that in Bihar, the Congress has just 19 MLAs and 3 MPs.
“We do not have enough numbers so that the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD, key regional party in Bihar) may feel pressured and give us more seats in alliance. So the only way in which the Congress can bargain is by getting more active on the ground. We want big faces like Kanhaiya Kumar and Pappu Yadav to get fully active. Technically, Pappu is not a Congress MP but he will definitely campaign for us,” he said.
The functionary added that Kanhaiya was interested in contesting the 2024 Lok Sabha election from Bihar but the top Congress leadership was not in the mood to go against the wish of RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his son Tejashwi, who did not want to support Kanhaiya. So, at the last moment, Kanhaiya was told to contest from Delhi.
The Congress leader from Begusarai mentioned earlier said: “It would be interesting to see whether the RJD will support Kanhaiya’s candidature if he contests the Bihar assembly polls this time. So, there are many challenges for the Congress in the coming days.”
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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