Kanhaiya meets Nitish aide, sets tongues wagging in NDA

Patna, Feb. 15: Many eyebrows were raised in Bihar on Monday as news broke of a meeting between CPI’s rising star Kanhaiya Kumar and Ashok Choudhary, a minister and key aide of chief minister Nitish Kumar.

A fiery former JNU student leader, Kanhaiya has been soft toward Nitish Kumar despite their parties rarely getting on the same page on most issues. Kanhaiya met Mr Choudhary on Sunday.

During his failed bid for the Lok Sabha in 2019, the former student leader had avoided attacking Mr Kumar. Mr Kumar had come out in support of Kanhaiya when the JNU controversy erupted in 2016. The JD(U) was then not a part of the NDA. The two retained the soft spot for each other even after Nitish Kumar returned to the NDA in 2017.

Mr Choudhary had headed the state unit of the JD(U) during the Assembly polls and played an instrumental role recently in enlisting the support of the sole BSP MLA Zama Khan and Independent legislator Sumit Singh, both of whom were inducted into the Cabinet last week.

He had also caused jitters in the LJP, an ally turned adversary, by inviting its sole MLA Raj Kumar Singh to his residence for a book launch function a few weeks back.

Mr Choudhary’s meeting with Kanhaiya, a staunch communist, came at a time when the charismatic young politician is said to have been left mortified by a censure motion that the CPI recently passed against him.

Sources close to Kanhaiya as well as Mr Choudhary insisted that it was a “non-political” meeting and that both have known each other for long.

It has, nonetheless, evoked reactions from those holding strong views on nationalism and against the so-called “tukde tukde gang”.