The induction of Jignesh Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar into the Congress can best be described as a marriage of convenience.
At a time when the Congress is battling a serious internal crisis and has to contend with daily defections from its ranks, its leadership can draw solace from the fact that two well-known youth leaders were willing to join the one-time grand old party. Their entry was particularly reassuring for former Congress president Rahul Gandhi after GenNext leaders like Jitin Prasada, Sushmita Dev and Jyotiraditya Scindia, who were counted as his team members, walked out of the Congress in quick succession.
For Mevani, Independent MLA from Gujarat, and Kumar, former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union and till recently with the Communist Party of India, joining the Congress means a move to a larger stage even though it is presently a rickety one.
As a first-time legislator, Mevani, who won the Vadgam Assembly seat in the 2017 Gujarat elections with Congress support, now needed a bigger platform to grow as a politician. Though he grabbed headlines in the run-up to the last Assembly polls by taking up the cause of Dalits and helped the Congress consolidate the Scheduled Caste vote in that crucial election, Mevani’s choices were limited. Given Mevani’s strong Leftist leanings, the Bharatiya Janata Party was ruled out while the Aam Aadmi Party is still to put down roots in Gujarat. Consequently, the Congress was the best option available to him.
Similarly, Kanhaiya Kumar was also in search of a national political party. The former student leader shot to fame when he was jailed and charged with sedition in 2016 for allegedly chanting “anti-national” slogans during a protest on the JNU campus. Kumar was little known till then but his arrest and his subsequent powerful speeches with his trademark call for “azadi” and strident attacks against the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi fetched him instant fame and made him a nationally recognised figure.
However, his fiery speeches did not help him when he tested the electoral waters in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Begusarai in Bihar on a CPI ticket. He lost to BJP’s Giriraj Singh by a huge margin. He has, since then, fallen out with the CPI which even passed a censure motion against him at its national council meeting earlier this year. Kumar was hunting around for a political alternative. The Janata Dal (U) was not an option given its alliance with the BJP while the Rashtriya Janata Dal was also a no-go as it is headed by Tejaswi Yadav, a young leader himself, who obviously did not want any competition. Though the Congress has been pushed to the margins in Bihar, Kumar picked this platform because he was running out of choices.
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Crowd-pullers to Vote-catchers
Both Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar are said to be handpicked by Rahul Gandhi who was particularly keen that they join the Congress. The two new entrants are known for their oratorical skills and are fearless opponents of the Modi government. This appeals to the Nehru-Gandhi scion, especially since the Congress desperately needs powerful Hindi-speaking orators who can be deployed during the forthcoming season of Assembly polls. The Congress hopes Mevani can emerge as a strong Dalit leader and can prove handy in reaching out to the Scheduled Castes across the country and not just in his home state Gujarat. Similarly, the Congress is banking on Kumar to energise its dispirited cadre in Bihar.
But the best-laid plans have a tendency to go awry. Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar are undoubtedly crowd-pullers and are especially popular with the youth. But can they prove to be vote-catchers?
It must be remembered that Kanhaiya Kumar was unable to win the Begusarai seat for the CPI in the last Lok Sabha election. His personal appeal and popularity will be put to test now as the Congress will be depending on the former JNU student leader to reach out to the poor underprivileged sections as his speeches have focused on their deprivations and the need to improve their lot.
Mevani burst on the scene as an activist who led angry protests against the increasing atrocities against Dalits in Gujarat and fought for their rights. The fact that he was not aligned with any political party made him a credible figure in the eyes of the people. It was precisely for this reason that Mevani preferred to contest as an Independent candidate in the last Assembly polls though he was supported by the Congress. But who is to say if he will have the same appeal now that he has jumped on to the Congress bandwagon given that the party’s Gujarat state unit is not in the pink of health.
There are doubts if the Mevani magic would work beyond the borders of Gujarat. Every state has its own dynamic and it is not a given that a leader who has a particular caste following in one state can replicate the same in another state. Ram Vilas Paswan was a high-profile Dalit leader in Bihar but he was unable to emerge as a pan-Indian Scheduled Caste leader. Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati too has not been able to make substantive electoral gains outside Uttar Pradesh even though she is a well-recognised figure across the country.
Challenges Ahead
Branded as lateral entrants and known to be Rahul Gandhi’s personal picks, Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar’s activities will be under close scrutiny by sections of the Congress, which are not happy with their induction. They will be waiting for the two young leaders to trip up. As it is, there are murmurs in the party about Rahul Gandhi’s Leftist leanings and that Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar will influence his worldview which could prove disastrous as Communists are currently a maligned lot.
This argument is, however, proffered out of personal pique because the two newcomers are Rahul Gandhi’s personal choices. The fact is that the Congress and Left parties have allied in the past and nor are Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar the first JNU students to join the Congress. Besides dealing with naysayers in his own party, Rahul Gandhi also has to face the BJP, which has been handed an opportunity to attack the Congress for aligning with members of the “tudke tudke gang” and “anti-national” forces.
Both Mevani and Kanhaiya Kumar have a challenging task ahead. They have an opportunity to make a mark in this new innings of their career. But joining a political party has its pitfalls. The two may yet defy all odds and acquire a pan-India following among the Dalits, the poor, landless labourers and the youth. Alternatively, they may become another face in the crowd.
Hardik Patel and Alpesh Thakor are two such examples. Patel’s successful movement demanding quotas for the Patidars in Gujarat gave the BJP the jitters in the 2017 Assembly polls. Thakor’s campaign for the rights of backward classes was equally a source of worry for the BJP in those elections. Both Patel and Thakor joined the Congress subsequently. While Thakor has since switched to the BJP, Patel is working president of Gujarat Congress. Thakor is barely heard or seen now and Patel is embroiled in the party’s factional battles.
The author is a senior journalist. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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