The face of the left and the Communist Party of India’s (CPI) youth leader Kanhaiya Kumar met JDU leader and Bihar minister Ashok Choudhary at his residence in Patna. triggering speculations.
Kanhaiya, former president of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students Union, has met Chaudhary after alleged bickering with the party.
Mr Choudhary had headed the state unit of the JD(U) during the assembly elections and played an instrumental role recently in enlisting the support of the sole BSP MLA Zama Khan and independent legislator Sumit Singh, both of whom were inducted into the cabinet last week.
There are speculations about this visit and certain reports that Kanhaiya may join JDU, who is currently angry with the CPI. Kanhaiya has already praised Nitish Kumar on several occasions. People who are close with Kanhaiya have described this visit as a formal one.
Notably, the CPI has recently passed a censure motion against Kanhaiya Kumar. The CPI has passed a censure motion against Kanhaiya as he was accused of mistreating Secretary Indu Bhushan at the party office in Patna on December 1 last year. Kanhaiya was charged for assaulting a senior party worker.
What did JDU say?
On speculation about Kanhaiya Kumar joining JDU, Ajay Alok said, “Kanhaiya Kumar is of distorted communist ideology, if he leaves his ideology and adopts the ideology of JDU and wants to act as a true soldier of the party, he is welcome to join the party.”
According to reports, Kanhaiya is angry with the censure motion passed in the forum against him in Hyderabad. Kanhaiya and his supporters were accused of not only beating Indu Bhushan but also making undignified comments on the party leadership.
Subhash Singh, a state minister from the BJP quota, said the former JNUSU president’s meet with a senior leader of an alliance partner was “not appropriate”.
The CPI met in Hyderabad last week where they passed a censure motion on the incident of assault by Kanhaiya in Patna. The meeting was attended by 110 members of the party, except three, all people supported the passing of a censure motion against Kumar.
Kanhaiya Kumar had fought from his home constituency Begusarai, where he lost to Union Minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh by a massive margin.
A few hours after Kanhaiya Kumar’s meeting with Ashok Choudhary, Chandan Kumar Singh, an LJP MP, called on Chief Minister Nitish Kumar.
JD(U) spokesman Rajiv Ranjan Prasad latched on the development to berate the LJP, saying, “Chirag Paswan has been alleging that his constituency of Jamui has been neglected and there has been no progress in Bihar at all. The meeting between his party MP and the chief minister is a rebuff to his brand of politics”.
The LJP sought to downplay the significance of the meeting.
“Our respected MP must have met the chief minister with regard to development works in his constituency. We wonder what is there to be so excited about,” LJP spokesman Ashraf Ansari said in a video statement.
Chirag Paswan had pulled out of the NDA ahead of the assembly polls, vowing to decimate the JD(U) and help the BJP seize power.
He fielded candidates against all JD(U) nominees, many of them rebels from the BJP, a strategy that cost Nitish Kumar’s party dear and reduced it to the status of a junior partner to the BJP in the state for the first time.
