Former President of the JNU students union Kanhaiya Kumar, will be the CPI’s candidate from Bihar’s Begusarai for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.
The CPI decided on Saturday, a day after Kanhaiya Kumar was left out of the oppositions coalition in Bihar. He will be joint candidate of the Left parties from Begusarai.
It was widely expected that Kanhaiya Kumar would be the opposition’s candidate from Begusarai. However, no seats were given to the CPI and CPI-M, making it unclear if Kumar will be supported by the mahagathbandhan (grand alliance). The seat had gone to Lalu Prasad Yadav’s party, RJD’s kitty.
Opposition Left parties in Bihar slammed the opposition for excluding them in the seat sharing formula.
The grand alliance parties feel that it would be safer to have a Muslim candidate to contest, hence so RJD may field Tanvir Hasan, who lost by a margin of 60,000 votes in 2014.
RJD say that Kanhaiya Kumar has less chances of standing up against BJP’s candidate Giriraj Singh, the Union Minister who is often known for his controversial communal statements.