Hyderabad: Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Student’s Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and Gujarati Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani on Tuesday joined the Indian National Congress.
They were inducted at a function at the all party India Congress Committee headquarters in New Delhi in the presence of Wayanad member of Parliament and former Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Speculations were rife from the last few weeks that they were set to join the grand old party.
The former CPI leader and Gujarat member of legislative assembly (MLA) Jignesh mewani attended a Congress press conference after joining the party.
Kumar was earlier with the CPI which he joined ahead of the 2019 general election. Subsequently, he contested from his hometown Begusarai in Bihar where he lost to Bharatiya Janata Party’s Giriraj Singh.
Posters welcoming Mewani to the party were reportedly put up outside the Congress office before the big announcement. He is also said to have met Rahul Gandhi twice recently in the last two weeks.
A former JNU student leader, Kumar shot to fame in 2016, when he was arrested along with Umar Khalid over alleged “anti-national slogans” raised at an event to mark death anniversary of the parliament attack accused Afzal Guru.
Jignesh Mevani is an independent MLA representing Gujarat’s Vadagam constituency and also worked earlier as a lawyer and former journalist.