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Kanhaiya Kumar can get the Congress some traction but what next?

Kanhaiya Kumar, former JNUSU president, can be an asset but why is the Congress busy collecting assets when it has no strategy to use them. Kanhaiya’s move from the CPI to the Congress indicates that Bihar’s Leningrad is getting bored with just slogans and wants more. Of what, even Kanhaiya won’t know.

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4 years ago

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Kanhaiya Kumar

By Vikram Kilpady

With the Congress woefully short on motormouth Hindi speakers ahead of the Uttar Pradesh elections and the larger 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Kanhaiya Kumar looks like a gain for the Congress which he joined in the presence of Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday. Gujarat Vadgam MLA Jignesh Mewani, who was with Kanhaiya, voiced his support for the Congress agenda though he did not formally join it citing Assembly rules since he is an independent MLA. Kanhaiya is a good speaker and a livewire who can keep people entertained and hold his own against hectoring by either the centrists or by the right. That too with elan and good humour to bat away attacks. There are many good YouTube videos as evidence, one just needs to do a cursory search.

Kanhaiya can do all this in Hindi, and English, without missing a beat or a wink or being caught in unsure pauses that several Congress speakers resort to, Rahul Gandhi included, and are often parodied by the media for their inability to speak the language and what-not. If Rahul Gandhi is a load and shoot rifle, Kanhaiya is the KK-47 and therein lies the rub because like all assault rifles, can the Congress suffer the heat a speaker like Kanhaiya can generate?

As well-documented, Kanhaiya was a Communist Party of India member and had been president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union on the ticket of the CPI’s student wing. He had also contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election for the CPI from Begusarai, Bihar’s so-called Leningrad, and lost to Giriraj Singh of the BJP, the original go-to-Pakistan man. 

This is possibly where Kanhaiya realised that revolutionary slogans were fine to enthuse the youth, both rural and urban, and the poor, predominantly rural, but power was not for the taking so easily for the CPI (seen as a Bhumihar party) anymore. Unlike the CPI and its allies, the ultra-left CPIML Liberation won 5 seats in the Bihar elections. Possibly, the masses of Bihar didn’t trust their own boy, now a big Delhi man spouting slogans of aazadi for everyone, including Kashmiris.

This is what will weigh him down, and by extension, the Congress. The pre-spring 2016 sloganeering in JNU of aazadi is still the smallest thorn that can be used to prick the otherwise impregnable wall of rhetoric and common sense that Kanhaiya can raise in a debate. The BJP has had a measure of him in Bihar and he can be easily read by the party there. That’s the right-wing point against him.

The centrist remembers that Kanhaiya kept his distance when the dadis of Shaheen Bagh put out quilts and shamianas to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act-NRC-NPR. Unlike his comrades from JNU who came and kept a low-profile, Kanhaiya has almost no profile when Shaheen Bagh stood out as an example of citizens holding the State to account for being crass and despotic, even when the media sided against them. Further, Umar Khalid still continues to be in prison under the draconian UAPA but Kanhaiya has largely kept quiet.

The silence on his part is emblematic of the way the Left has of coming apart like the Titanic after hitting the iceberg of caste and privilege. The original Communist Party, the CPI, formed in 1925, had lost its spunk post-1950 after it toed the Soviet Union line not to disturb the Congress. What else could it do as the global fountainhead of Communism was not keen on antagonizing Nehru and his daughter?

Unhappy with this line, the alleged hotheads formed the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) as the differences between the Soviets under Khrushchev and China under Mao Zedong, who had the same big ideas as the now-dead Stalin, divided the communist world. The Marxists, meaning the CPM, as the Communists (i.e. the CPI) would derisively call the newer and more vibrant party, would see another split, leading to the birth of the ultra-left Marxist Leninists.

The CPIML would turn away from parliamentary democracy and take up arms, beginning in Naxalbari in 1967. The State, under Indira Gandhi, cracked down hard and destroyed that violent left turn with far more violent suppression of human rights. Many of those killed in pursuit of spring thunder were young men and women high on the ideas of revolution and low on the realities of the rural hinterland, policing and the generous use of extra-legal force. For a cinematic depiction, check this trailer.

So why is the Congress party bent upon getting Kanhaiya to join it. When his mere presence can become a huge negative? The Congress is stumbling from one crisis to another; just when the Punjab front was healing, Navjot Singh Sidhu ripped open a new fracture by quitting as PPCC chief.

The answer possibly lies in the fact that Kanhaiya is a champion at raising the esprit de corps among the Congress grassroots, which needs tending and protecting from the harsh lure of money and influence that the other side offers.

As someone said on social media, the Congress POV on the Ram Mandir doesn’t leave it much to hope for in terms of regaining Muslim votes, but Kanhaiya’s avowed aazadi stance could help swing a few of them, not to speak of Dalit votes pan-India, for among the many things the aazadi slogan seeks liberation from is Manu-wad.

It is significant that both Kanhaiya and Jignesh Mevani are turning away from the CPI and the CPM, respectively. The waning of the Communist-Marxist parties across the Hindi heartland, with the RSS-led BMS snatching away even its trade union constituency, the sign of the times is dispiriting for the mainstream Left. 

Read Also: Amid Punjab Congress turmoil, Kapil Sibal revives leadership questions

It would be amusing to see Kanhaiya Kumar and Congress leaders like P. Chidambaram share a table at a discussion. The hope that verbal flourish can give the Congress a fighting chance for more seats in the Lok Sabha is worth a gamble with avowed leftists, to overcome the charge of soft Hindutva.  

The Congress, it has been said so many times, encompasses both the left and the right. But can the centre hold? Especially when dissent is eating it away from the inside.

Then, there’s always the Trinamool Congress for Kanhaiya

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Over 24 lakh voters dropped from Kerala draft electoral roll after special revision

The Election Commission has removed over 24 lakh names from Kerala’s draft voter lists after verification during the Special Intensive Revision process.

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3 hours ago

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December 24, 2025

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kerala voters delete

Over 24.08 lakh electors have been removed from the draft voter lists in Kerala following the completion of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, with the Election Commission publishing the updated draft electoral roll on Tuesday.

As per official data, Kerala has a total of 2,78,50,855 registered electors. Of these, 2,54,42,352 electors submitted their Enumeration Forms during the revision process, which concluded on December 18.

The poll body said the deletions were carried out after verification and were linked to multiple factors, including electors shifting to other states or Union Territories, voters found to be non-existent, individuals who did not submit enumeration forms within the stipulated time, and those who chose not to continue their registration.

Break-up of deleted names

According to the Election Commission, the deleted entries include 6,49,885 names of deceased voters, accounting for 2.33 per cent of the electorate. Another 14,61,769 voters, or 5.25 per cent, were removed after being found shifted or absent, while 1,36,029 voters, around 0.49 per cent, were deleted for being enrolled at multiple locations.

Claims and objections window open

Although the enumeration phase has ended, eligible citizens can still seek corrections. The Commission has opened a claims and objections period from December 23 to January 22, 2026, allowing applications for inclusion of eligible voters or removal of ineligible names from the rolls.

The final electoral roll for Kerala is scheduled to be published on February 21, 2026.

Awareness drives and field-level efforts

The Election Commission said extensive awareness campaigns were conducted across the state to ensure maximum participation. Senior election officials held regular meetings with political parties at the state, district and assembly constituency levels to explain the revision process and share progress updates.

Booth Level Officers (BLOs) carried out house-to-house visits to all electors listed as of October 27, distributing Enumeration Forms and making at least three follow-up visits for collection. Booth Level Agents were permitted to submit up to 50 forms per day to strengthen coordination at the grassroots level.

To support field staff, BLOs were assisted by Anganwadi workers, students from NCC, NSS and election literacy clubs, volunteers, revenue officials and social work students. The poll body said more than 93 per cent mapping of collected forms was achieved through repeated training sessions, video tutorials and doubt-clearing programmes.

Special initiatives during SIR

During the exercise, the Chief Electoral Officer of Kerala launched motivational and outreach initiatives aimed at supporting election staff managing the heavy workload of digitising voter data. District-level programmes were also rolled out to recognise and motivate BLOs and supervisors completing digitisation targets.

In areas with weak network connectivity, a community-based digitisation model was adopted, where BLOs collectively digitised forms from locations with better internet access. Special urban camps were organised across all wards of urban local bodies to ensure comprehensive coverage of city voters.

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India’s LVM3 Baahubali rocket launches heaviest satellite ever from Indian soil

India’s LVM3 ‘Baahubali’ rocket has successfully launched the heaviest satellite ever from Indian soil, placing the BlueBird 6 communication satellite into low Earth orbit.

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4 hours ago

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December 24, 2025

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Bahubali Rocket

India has marked a major milestone in its space programme as the Launch Vehicle Mark-3 (LVM3), popularly known as the ‘Baahubali’ rocket, successfully placed the heaviest-ever satellite launched from Indian soil into orbit on Wednesday.

The mission, LVM3-M6, lifted off from the second launch pad at the Sriharikota spaceport in Andhra Pradesh, carrying BlueBird 6, a next-generation communication satellite developed by US-based company AST SpaceMobile.

Mission lifts off from Sriharikota

The 43.5-metre-tall LVM3 rocket, powered by two S200 solid strap-on boosters, took off at 8:55 am after the completion of a 24-hour countdown. The spaceport is located around 135 km east of Chennai.

After a flight lasting nearly 15 minutes, the BlueBird Block-2 satellite separated from the launch vehicle and was injected into its intended low Earth orbit at an altitude of about 520 km.

Confirming the success of the mission, ISRO Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, Dr V Narayanan said the satellite had been placed “successfully and precisely” into the designated orbit.

Heaviest payload carried by an Indian launcher

According to ISRO, this mission marks the heaviest satellite ever launched from Indian soil using an Indian rocket. Dr Narayanan said the flight was also the third fully commercial mission of the LVM3.

He added that the mission demonstrated the strong performance record of the heavy-lift vehicle and highlighted its reliability in the global launch market.

Focus on space-based mobile broadband

BlueBird 6 is part of the BlueBird Block-2 series of communication satellites. These satellites are designed to provide space-based cellular broadband connectivity directly to standard mobile smartphones, without the need for any special hardware or equipment.

The aim of the technology is to enable broadband services straight from space, expanding connectivity to regions with limited or no terrestrial network coverage.

PM Modi calls launch a proud milestone

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated the teams involved and described the launch as a significant achievement for India’s space sector.

In a statement, the Prime Minister said the successful placement of the US satellite into orbit strengthens India’s heavy-lift launch capability and reinforces the country’s growing role in the global commercial launch market.

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BJP raises seat offer to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena to nearly 90 ahead of Mumbai civic polls, talks continue

The BJP has raised its seat offer to Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena to nearly 90 for the upcoming BMC elections, but fresh talks are needed as differences persist within the Mahayuti.

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19 hours ago

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December 23, 2025

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With the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections drawing closer, the seat-sharing tussle within the Mahayuti alliance continues, with the BJP increasing its offer to Eknath Shinde-led Shiv Sena but failing to reach the party’s expectations.

According to sources, the BJP has now proposed close to 90 seats for the Shinde faction in the upcoming Mumbai civic polls. This is a significant jump from its earlier offer of 52 seats but still falls short of what Shinde is seeking. The Shiv Sena leader has reportedly reduced his demand from an initial 125 seats to 112, yet remains dissatisfied with the latest formula.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is expected to hold another round of discussions with Shinde to break the deadlock. Sources indicate that the BJP is unlikely to stretch its offer much further, especially after its strong showing in recent statewide local body elections.

BJP firm after strong local poll performance

The BJP has emerged as the single largest party in the recent local polls, securing 117 municipal president posts. In comparison, the Shinde-led Shiv Sena won 53 posts, while Ajit Pawar’s faction of the NCP secured 37. These results have strengthened the BJP’s negotiating position ahead of the BMC elections.

However, the current seat-sharing calculations could change if Ajit Pawar decides to contest the Mumbai civic polls as part of the alliance. Senior NCP leader Sunil Tatkare confirmed that no final decision has been taken yet, noting that discussions with alliance partners are ongoing.

Nawab Malik factor complicates alliance talks

A major point of contention within the Mahayuti is the issue of senior NCP leader Nawab Malik, who is facing multiple corruption cases, including a money laundering case linked to underworld activities. While the alliance has made it clear that Malik is unacceptable as part of its Mumbai setup, Ajit Pawar is reportedly firm on backing him.

Mumbai BJP chief Ameet Satam has publicly stated that the party would not align with any group that includes Malik. Sources added that if the NCP joins the alliance in Mumbai, it may be asked to project a different leader and contest a limited number of seats.

BMC elections timeline

The countdown to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation elections has already begun, with less than a month left for polling. Voting is scheduled for January 15, with counting set to take place the following day. A total of 2,869 municipal seats will be contested, including 227 seats in the BMC.

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