NEW DELHI: A day after his release from Tihar jail, JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar on Friday got the first offer to join mainstream politics with CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury revealing that Kanhaiya would be campaigning for the Left in the upcoming West Bengal polls. “All students supporting Left will participate in the campaign along with Kanhaiya. As a Left activist, he will naturally campaign (for the parties). It is often said that youth is not attracted to the Left. What have they to say about yesterday’s meeting in JNU? For the first time, the nation can see the power of youth of the Left,” said Yechury.
Kanhaiya, a leader of All India Students’ Federation, the students’ wing of the CPI, said, “I am not a politician, I am a student. I have no intention of joining mainstream politics or contesting any election. I want to question as a student.” The 29-year-old added, “For me, Afzal Guru was a citizen... who was punished under law. He is not an icon for me, Rohith Vemula is.
I am not the country’s president, but of the JNU student union.”