Bihar Lok Sabha Polls | CPI to field Kanhaiya Kumar from Begusarai after oppn alliance snubs Left

A day after being left out of the RJD-led opposition alliance in Bihar, the CPI on Saturday confirmed that Kanhaiya Kumar – former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union – will be its candidate from Bihar’s Begusarai for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

According to reports, the decision was taken by the Left on Saturday, a day after the opposition 'Mahagathbandhan' in Bihar announced the its seat-sharing formula for the 40 Lok Sabha seats in the state.

CPI Bihar secretary Satyanarayan Singh said that a final call on Kanhaiya Kumar has been taken and the executive committee meeting will be held on Sunday to decide on the number of seats the party will contest.

With the former JNUSU president making his political debut, the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat is likely to witness a three-way contest between Kanhaiya Kumar, NDA’s Giriraj Singh and RJD’s Tanveer Hassan.

As per the seat-sharing formula, the RJD will contest on 20 seats while on Congress nine seats. Recent entrants to the 'Grand Alliance' - Upendra Kushwaha's Rashtriya Lok Samta Party (RLSP) and Mukesh Sahni's Vikassheel Insan Party (VIP) will field their candidates in five and three seats.

Former JD(U) president and NDA convener Sharad Yadav will contest on the RJD symbol and merge his party Loktantrik Janata Dal (LJD) with it after the Lok Sabha polls.

As per the analysis of the seat sharing formula, the RJD, which wanted to contest 20, had to part with one seat from its quota to the CPI(ML) Liberation, while the Congress, which had reportedly bargained hard for 11 seats, had to settle for nine with the assurance of a Rajya Sabha berth.

Among other constituents, the HAM, which claimed to have a "stronger support base than even of the Congress" and had insisted on more seats than at least the RLSP, had to settle for only three.