India

Kanhaiya Kumar, Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani to join Congress on Oct 2

New Delhi: Former student leader Kanhaiya Kumar and independent Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani will join the Congress – likely during an event on October 2 – party sources said on Monday. They were scheduled to join on September 28 – on the birth anniversary of Bhagat Singh.

Mevani – a Dalit leader who represents Gujarat’s Vadgam constituency – could be made a Working President of the party’s state unit, sources added.

Whatever his final role, Mevani’s joining is further evidence of the Congress’ calculated approach ahead of polls next year, including Punjab, where Dalits are nearly a third of the population.

Kumar – earlier President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University’s students’ union and now with the CPI – is expected to bring a few other Left leaders with him when he jumps to the Congress.

News of Mevani and Kumar’s expected joining underscores the Congress’s push to recruit young and dynamic faces ahead of state elections in 2022 and the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Congress sources have said Kumar has already met Rahul Gandhi – twice in two weeks – and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra – to discuss his future role in the party. Kumar contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from his hometown of Begusarai in Bihar but lost to the BJP’s Giriraj Singh.

Congress sources also said a Jammu-based lawyer who fought for justice in a horrific rape case involving a minor – is also in talks and, if things go smoothly, might join with Mevani and Kumar.

Earlier today Jignesh Mevani tweeted on the Congress’ new Punjab Chief Minister-Charanjit Channi, who is the state’s first ever Dalit Sikh leader. Mevani applauded Rahul Gandhi and the party for the decision, saying it would have a “tremendous impact… on all subaltern masses”.

The decision of appointing Charanjit singh ji as the CM of Punjab is a message that @Rahul Gandhi and @INCIndia have give.

It will have tremendous impact amongst not just dalits but all the subaltern masses.

For dalits, the move is not just brilliant but soothing too.

Earlier this month Jignesh Mevani also ripped into the BJP after Vijay Rupani was asked to step down as Gujarat Chief Minister. Mevani tweeted: “People of Gujarat would have appreciated had Rupani resigned for his monumental mismanagement of Covid crisis.”

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