Ahead of assembly elections in Gujarat, former JNU ‘student leader’ Kanhaiya Kumar and independent MLA Jignesh Mevani are all set to join the Congress party on October 2, an NDTV report said.
As per the report, the original plan was to induct the two leaders into the Congress party on September 28 but was deferred to October 2, which is the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
Sources quoted by NDTV, a media organisation considered to be close to the Congress party, have reportedly said the Mevani could be awarded the post of working president of the party’s state unit, the same post which was accorded to Hardik Patel in 2020.
The Vadgam MLA today posted a fawning tweet hailing senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and the Congress party for electing a Dalit Sikh leader, Charanjit Channi, as the new chief minister of Punjab, possibly a hint towards his future in politics.
“The decision of appointing Charanjit singh ji as the CM of Punjab is a message that @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia have given. It will have tremendous impact amongst not just dalits but all the subaltern masses. For dalits, the move is not just brilliant but soothing too,” Mevani tweeted.
The decision of appointing Charanjit singh ji as the CM of Punjab is a message that @RahulGandhi and @INCIndia have given.
— Jignesh Mevani (@jigneshmevani80) September 20, 2021
It will have tremendous impact amongst not just dalits but all the subaltern masses.
For dalits, the move is not just brilliant but soothing too.
Along with Mevani, the former president of the JNUSU, Kanhaiya Kumar, is also expected to join the Congress party. Kumar had taken the plunge into politics ahead of 2019 general elections by joining the Communist Party of India(CPI) but neither him nor his political party had any impact in the Lok Sabha polls. Kumar contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from his hometown of Begusarai in Bihar but suffered a humiliating defeat at the hands of the BJP’s Giriraj Singh.
As per sources, Kumar is expected to bring a few other left leaders along with him, underscoring the longstanding contention that Congress and the left are two sides of the same coin.
It is worth noting that Kanhaiya Kumar is one of the accused in the JNU sedition case where anti-national slogans were raised during an event in Jawaharlal Nehru University. In February 2016, the students of JNU had organized an event to mark the anniversary of terrorist Afzal Guru who had attacked the Indian Parliament. Many slogans challenging the Indian State’s sovereignty and calling for its balkanization were raised. At the event, slogans such as ‘Bharat Tere Tukde Honge’ and Afzal hum sharminda hain, tere katil jinda hain’ were reportedly raised.
Similarly, Jignesh Mevani too has troubled antecedents. He has been a virulent critic of Narendra Modi. In his attempt to target the Prime Minister, he has peddled fake news about reservations, was caught on camera trying to stoke caste conflict and spoken about Narendra Modi in an extremely disdainful manner. On hindsight, it’s quite understandable why people have rejected his brand of hateful politics and the Congress seems to have drawn inspiration from him and his ilk.
Whatever be the reasons underlying the accommodation of polarising figures such as Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani, the move nevertheless reveals that the Congress party has little confidence on its grass-roots workers and leadership in Gujarat and is relying on new recruits to power their assembly election campaign.
