CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar in talks with Rahul Gandhi to join Congress

New Delhi, Sep 17: CPI leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who lost his maiden Lok Sabha election from Begusarai constituency in Bihar in 2019 against BJP's Giriraj Singh, is likely to join the Congress. The former JNU Students' union leader is in talks with Rahul Gandhi who is looking for young faces to strengthen the party.

"Kanhaiya Kumar will serve as an important young face of the party in Bihar and will also have a national role to play," sources tell the ANI.

The report claims that Kumar had a meeting with Rahul Gandhi, recently and discussions on the role which will be given to the young leader are in the "final stages".

The Congress is coming up with a strategy to take on the BJP for which the party has identified a lot of young influential leaders. A report in daily claims that Hardik Patel, working president of Gujarat Congress, and poll strategist Prashant Kishor were instrumental in pushing Kanhaiya Kumar's case.

Rahul Gandhi wants to bring youths to the forefront as part of his party's revival plan and trying to rope in influential young faces to the Congress. The report claims that Jignesh Mevani, a member of the Gujarat Legislative Assembly.

However, the decision to bring Kanhaiya Kumar to the party's fold is not going well with Rashtriya Janata Dal, its ally in Bihar.

A section in Congress feels that Kanhaiya Kumar's inclusion might not benefit the party over his alleged case of raising anti-India slogans at JNU in 2016.

At this stage, Kanhaiya Kumar is a member of the National Executive of the Communist Party of India.

D Raja, general secretary of CPI, has denied the reports of Kanhaiya Kumar joining Congress. "I did ask him about the speculations. And after our conversation, I want to condemn these ongoing speculations. He is the youngest member of our national executive and as asset for the party," Hindustan Times quotes him as saying.