In the heart of Begusarai, often referred to as the Leningrad of Bihar, the Communist Party of India office has a deserted look after homeboy Kanhaiya Kumar left for Congress. It was here that he contested his first Lok Sabha election and lost to Giriraj Singh of the BJP in a widely viewed battle.
“I am joining Congress because it is not just a party, it is an idea. It is the oldest and most democratic party in the country,” declared Kumar as he entered the oldest party.
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The CPI will not pretend that it did not need Kanhaiya. Eventually, the former leader of the JNU Students’ Union made headlines, drew crowds and activated the All India Students Federation (AISF), the student wing of the CPI, which has itself been its member.
We wanted him to remain in the party. The party was successful in attracting the youth. He made the party come alive,” said four-time CPI MLA from Teghra assembly seat in Begusarai district, Rajendra Singh.
AISF Begusarai secretary Rakesh Kumar agreed. “Though he stayed in Delhi and had no connection with Bihar, the CPI made him its favourite. He was also the top leader of AISF. He made a positive impact on the student wing, which expanded its reach from 18 to 25 districts,” Kumar said.
But the CPI’s relationship with Kanhaiya started cracking.
“The party has some strict rules regarding the organisation. In Kanhaiya’s case, he did not harmonize the party,” said Rajendra Singh.
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The incident that exposed the rift was when a censure motion was passed against Kanhaiya in February this year, when the leader’s supporters assaulted office secretary Indu Bhushan for not being informed of the change in the timing of the Zilla Parishad meeting. Was.
The death of CPI’s Bihar secretary Satya Narayan Singh, who succumbed to Covid-19, also reportedly hit the young leader hard and he had trouble warming up to Singh’s successor Ram Naresh Pandey, especially as the party Bihar accepted a small part of the seats. Assembly elections.
Six seats were allotted to the CPI, while the ally CPI (ML) was allotted 19 seats in the Grand Alliance, despite being considered a minor party in the state. This gave rise to a long-running resentment Kanhaiya had over the party chasing an alliance instead of organizing it. “The ‘CPI’ has become India’s confused party,” he had said in 2018 while attacking the leadership in Kerala for forging an alliance with the Congress.
Party leaders suggested that Kanhaiya could have contested the Bihar assembly elections last year, but the flamboyant leader had made up his mind against contesting the state elections. The CPI had won two seats in the state last year from Begusarai.
According to Rakesh Kumar, Kanhaiya left the CPI to pursue his political ambitions. “Every person has his own ambition. They may realize that these ambitions cannot be fulfilled by being in the CPI.
The generational gap in the CPI has also been exposed with the departure of Kanhaiya. “We all believe that there is a generation gap in the party. Everyone accepts it. There is an older generation and then there are people my age,” said Rakesh Kumar.
The difference became apparent during the Lok Sabha election campaign when Kanhaiya Kumar’s speeches swelled, angering senior party leaders.
Rajendra Singh, however, said that what is believed to be a generational gap is a healthy mix of youthful energy and elders’ guidance that keeps the party going. He said during the 2019 elections, the crowd came in the way of the CPI’s traditional way of campaigning.
“A lot of people were coming from all over the country. We could not adjust to the conditions we were in. We became victims of chaos. The way we wanted to campaign…we couldn’t do it at our organizational level. One of the reasons for this was that Muslim youth were so actively in front that some Hindus withdrew,” he said.
Asked if he had contacted Kanhaiya recently, Rajendra Singh said, “We tried to contact him. I contacted him again and again, but was unsuccessful.”
Kanhaiya Kumar remained unavailable for News18’s efforts to reach him for a comment.
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