Patna: Gujarat Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani on Wednesday said he and Hardik Patel will campaign for former JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, who is contesting from the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar. “Hardik Patel and I will campaign for Kanhaiya Kumar. Several people across the country will visit Begusarai to campaign for him,” Mevani said here on his way to Begusarai.
He called Kanhaiya Kumar “s local boy of Begusarai” and said: “It is difficult for BJP likely candidate Giriraj Singh, a Union Minister, to face Kanhaiya in Begusarai.” The Communist Party of India (CPI) has fielded Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai. As a joint Left candidate, he will take on Giriraj Singh and RJD’s Tanweer Hasan.
Kanhaiya Kumar, 32, was arrested in February 2016 and accused of sedition for allegedly doing nothing to prevent the raising of anti-India slogans on the JNU campus. The JNU Students Union President for 2015-16, he was then pursuing doctorate from the School of International Studies and was affiliated to the All India Students Federation (AISF).