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Business News/ Politics / Policy/  Kanhaiya Kumar to campaign for CPI candidate in Kerala polls
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Kanhaiya Kumar to campaign for CPI candidate in Kerala polls

Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar will campaign for CPI candidate Muhammed Muhassin in Pattambi seat

Kanhaiya Kumar. Photo: PTIPremium
Kanhaiya Kumar. Photo: PTI

New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who earlier ruled out campaigning in the West Bengal and Kerala assembly polls, has decided to campaign for a JNU research student who is in the fray for the 16 May elections in Kerala.

Ever since he walked out of Tihar jail, where he was lodged in a sedition case over an event on campus, Kanhaiya had been maintaining he was a student and not a politician, and that he had no plans of campaigning in the assembly polls.

However, the 29-year-old research scholar said he decided to join the campaign after Muhammed Muhassin, a Communist Party of India (CPI) candidate in Pattambi seat in Palakkad, gave the idea.

“He has stood by me, so I decided to hit the campaign trail," Kanhaiya said.

Muhassin is a student at JNU’s School of Social Science and is about to complete Doctor of Philosophy in Adult Education. He is also the vice-president of the JNU unit of the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), the student wing of the CPI.

Kanhaiya, who was the first AISF member to be elected to the JNU Students’ Union president’s post, was arrested in February in a sedition case over an event on JNU campus against the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru, during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

Muhassin was among those who led the agitation for Kanhaiya’s release.

“I still maintain that mainstream politics is not my calling and I have no intention of joining it. I still plan to stick to my goal of being a teacher, but with Muhassin it was different. He has stood by JNU, stood by me all the time, I couldn’t refuse him," Kanhaiya said.

“And not only me but the entire AISF unit of JNU will support him. Besides, the JNU unit of the Indian People’s Theatre Association (IPTA) will also travel to Kerala to campaign for him," he added.

Asked about the campaigning schedule, Muhassin told PTI over phone from Kerala, “Kanhaiya along with the IPTA group and JNU students are expected to be here in the second week of May. He also plans to go to Patna before that where he will address a public meeting. He may also visit his family during the same trip."

After a speech that Kanahaiya delivered on his return to the campus from jail, CPI (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury had said the student leader would be campaigning for Left parties in the assembly polls.

However, he later said Kanhaiya will not travel to Kerala and West Bengal to campaign citing the bail conditions and other issues.

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Published: 24 Apr 2016, 05:34 PM IST
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