Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani likely to join Congress today

Kanhaiya Kumar,
leader of the Communist Party of India (CPI), and Jignesh Mevani, independent
MLA from Gujarat, are set to join the Congress on Tuesday, September 28. Their
joining the Congress ahead of a slew of assembly elections indicates a
political reconfiguration within the party’s ranks. Both Kanhaiya Kumar and
Jignesh Mevani have significant reach, particular among younger voters.

Congress sources
told the media that the Kanhaiya Kumar and Jignesh Mevani were originally
scheduled to join the Congress on October 2, Gandhi Jayanti. But the event was
pushed up to September 28.

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Jignesh Mevani is
an independent MLA from Gujrat’s Vadgam constituency. The 38-year-old Dalit leader
rose to prominence for leading protests against the 2016 flogging incident of
seven Dalit youths in Gujarat’s Una by members of a cow protection group.

Subsequently, Mevani
appeared with Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakore has among the key young
challengers to the BJP in the 2017 Gujarat Assembly elections. While Alpesh
Thakore later joined the BJP, Hardik Patel is the working president of the
Gujarat Congress. Jignesh Mevani had won the Vadgam (reserved) assembly constituency
in the Banaskatha district of Gujarat in 2017 backed by the Congress.

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Kanhaiya Kumar,
former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s students’ union, is
expected to carry along a few more left leaders when he joins the Congress on
Tuesday. Kumar rose to prominence after a huge controversy broke out at JNU
over shouting of ‘anti-national’ slogans during his tenure as students’ union
president. He was subsequently arrested on charges of sedition.

Upon securing
bail, Kanhaiya Kumar returned to JNU to a hero’s welcome where he gave a
rousing speech criticising the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party for stifling
dissent. That speech charted Kumar’s further forays into politics. Kumar
contested the Lok Sabha polls in 2019 from the Begusarai constituency but lost
to BJP’s Giriraj Singh.

Kanhaiya Kumar and
Jignesh Mevani’s joining the Congress underscores the party’s push towards bringing
in young faces ahead of the state elections after some of its own young leaders
like Jyotiraditya Scidia and Jitin Prasada quit the party to join the BJP.