Rahul Gandhi to join Kanhaiya Kumar’s padyatra in Bihar on April 7

Patna: Former Congress president and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi will join NSUI (National Students’ Union of India) in-charge and ex-JNUSU (Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union) president Kanhaiya Kumar during the latter’s ongoing padyatra (foot march) in Bihar on Monday.

“I am coming to Begusarai in Bihar to join the pad yatra (foot march), which aims at highlighting the perennial problem of unemployment and migration. Wear a white shirt and join me in the movement to expose the government on the issue of jobs and migration,” tweeted Rahul Gandhi on Sunday in Hindi.

“Rahul, who will be visiting Bihar for the third time since January, is slated to land at Patna airport on Monday morning, from where he will leave for Begusarai to join Kanhaiya Kumar, who has been leading the foot march since March 16 and has covered several hundred kilometres raising the issue of jobs and migration,” said newly-appointed Bihar Congress president Rajesh Kumar, a veteran Dalit leader, on Sunday.

During his second trip to Bihar in February, Rahul had exhorted the Dalits and marginalised sections to work hard and excel so that “each important department and ministry should have Dalits as their top leaders.”

Within a few weeks, the Bihar Congress marked a new beginning, with Rajesh Kumar, a sitting MLA from the Dalit community, being appointed as Bihar Congress president, replacing Akhilesh Prasad Singh, a Bhumihar (upper caste) who was considered close to RJD chief Lalu Prasad (Akhilesh was earlier an RJD MP from 2004–09).

Significance

Rahul’s Bihar visit is significant in the sense that the state will have an Assembly election in October and November this year for the 243 seats.

“The RJD’s vote bank of the Muslim-Yadav combine, consisting of nearly 30 per cent, has remained more or less loyal to Lalu. Add to it the Dalit votes, which originally backed Congress but, over the years, shifted their allegiance, may make the INDIA bloc vote percentage stronger if there is a tectonic shift in the marginalised sections’ preference towards Congress,” opined a senior editor of a leading Hindi daily, preferring anonymity.

It is against this backdrop that Congress’ in-charge of Bihar Affairs, Krishna Allavaru, met RJD chief Lalu Prasad at AIIMS, New Delhi, where the latter is recuperating after his surgery. This was Allavaru’s first visit to Lalu after having claimed that “Congress was not anyone’s B-team.”

“We wished Lalu ji a speedy recovery. Together, we will give the NDA a crushing defeat in the ensuing polls,” said Allavaru, dropping ample hints of developing bonhomie with the RJD.