Kanhaiya Kumar at a press meet at the CPI office in Patna. (Express photo by Nagendra Kumar Singh ) Kanhaiya Kumar at a press meet at the CPI office in Patna. (Express photo by Nagendra Kumar Singh )

With the CPI officially announcing on Sunday the candidature of former JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai, he said his fight would be against the “fundamentalist thinking” of BJP candidate Giriraj Singh. He said his fight was not against RJD candidate Tanvir Hasan. Kumar said the RJD might have decided not to forge an alliance with the CPI because of its “political arithmetic”, but the CPI’s cadre would support Grand Alliance candidates where the party is not contesting.

CPI Bihar secretary Satya Narain Singh, who announced Kumar’s candidature, said, “We held an emergency meeting of our state executive and asked our central unit to decide if we should contest on some proposed seats such as Madhubani, Banka and Khagaria. Our idea is to ensure that there is no division of anti-BJP votes. We will not field candidates where we are not capable enough of winning.” Follow more election news here.

Kumar, who has been campaigning in Begusarai for nearly a year now, said, “When there were talks of Giriraj Singh contesting from Begusarai, I made it a point to stay put in Begusarai to ensure there is no religious frenzy here. How can people of Begusarai accept Giriraj who is averse to contesting from here and has not visited the constituency? My fight here will be against the fundamentalist thinking of Giriraj Singh, who seldom looked an Indian minister but like Pakistan visa minister, out to send several Indians to Pakistan from time to time.”

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Asked if RJD’s Hasan was his rival, Kumar said he and Hasan were “not in contest”. “It is my age to talk idealism. I will never subscribe to caste politics. I enjoy the support of Begusarai people who stood by me despite an allegation of sedition against me,” he said. “Grand Alliance wants to defeat BJP and Left parties also want to defeat BJP. Our goal is common. It is just that we could not strike an alliance for Begusarai.”

Asked if he had a rivalry with RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, Kumar said they had come together on the shelter home issue at Jantar Mantar. “We have to move ahead of our political ego and parties’ electoral constraints at a time when the country is divided into two camps — those who are pro-Constitution and those who are pro-corporate,” said Kumar.

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