New Delhi: A day after Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader Kanhaiya Kumar, arrested for sedition 20 days ago, was released from the Tihar Jail, reports on Friday said the JNUSU president will campaign for the Left Front in the upcoming Kerala and West Bengal Assembly polls.
Reports suggest that the Left, which is battling hard to counter Trinamool Congress in Bengal wants to bank on Kanhaiya's popularity and attract the youth. Notably, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is also pitching in hard to make inroads into the state.
Besides Bengal, Left has a significant presence in Kerala and it would like Kanhaiya, who is a leader of All India Students' Federation (AISF), the students' wing of CPI, to target the Oommen Chandy-led UDF government.
Assembly elections in Assam, West Bengal, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry will be held in April and May, Chief Election Commissioner Nasim Zaidi announced today.
West Bengal will see balloting on seven dates despite a six-phase election: April 4, 11, 17, 21, 25 and 30 and May 5.
Kerala will see election on a single day May 16.
After returning to JNU campus Thursday night, the university's students' union leader Kanhaiya Kumar said they are seeking freedom within the country and not from India, as he hurled barbs at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing students at the campus, 29-year-old Kumar, hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, he had many differences with the PM but he agreed with his tweet "Satyameva Jayate" which he had posted in praise of HRD Minister Smriti Irani's fiery speech in Lok Sabha on the JNU row as it is in the Constitution.
"I have many differences with the PM but I agree with his tweet Satyameva Jayate because these words are in our Constitution," he said.
