2 former students of JNU set to make electoral debut in Bihar assembly polls

After former JNU students’ union leader Kanhaiya Kumar took the plunge into electoral politics in 2019 when he contested the Lok Sabha election as a CPI candidate Union minister Giriraj Singh from Begusarai, two JNU alumni - Sandeep Saurav and Nikhil Anand – are making their debuts in Bihar.

Besides Saurav and Anand, two other JNU alumni are active in Bihar’s politics as lawmakers - sitting Congress party MLA from Kadwa in Munger district, Shakeel Ahmed Khan, and JD (U) member of legislative council (MLC), Tanvir Akhtar. Both Khan and Akhtar had also been JNUSU presidents.

Chandrashekhar Prasad, who was JNUSU vice president in 1993, and eventually became its president, for two successive terms, had also returned to his hometown Siwan in Bihar for a political career and was working for the CPI (ML). But his journey was cut short when he was allegedly killed by goons of jailed RJD leader Syed Sahabuddin in 1997.

Saurav, CPI (ML) candidate from Paliganj in Patna district, is a former JNUSU general secretary. Saurav, a resident of Maner, had been active in the JNU campus agitating against the Centre’s policies.

After graduating from Patna University in Hindi, he joined the Centre of Indian Languages under School of Languages (SL) in JNU in 2007 and completed his MA, M Phil and PhD in Hindi literature.

He started his political journey by contesting for the post of councillor in JNUSU and later became general secretary.

For Saurav the road to victory will not be easy. There are 25 contestants from the Paliganj constituency and he will be in direct fight with sitting MLA Jay Vardhan Yadav alias Baccha Yadav who joined the ruling JD(U) from the RJD. Saurav’s party CPI (ML) had stood third in 2015 polls and its candidate, Anwar Husain had garnered 19,438 votes.

Saurav claimed the lawmakers from Paliganj have not done anything worthwhile for the constituency and pointed out encroachments and lack of health facilities.

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“The ‘nahar’ (canal) in Paliganj is in poor condition and it is heavily encroached, besides at the primary health centre here the patients are just referred to higher institutions. The Dalits have not got benefit of Indira Awas Yojana. The past MLAs have done nothing for the area’s development,” he said.

Nikhil Anand who is contesting on a BJP ticket from Maner constituency in Patna district, is up against RJD veteran Bhai Virendra. Maner is going to polls in the second phase on November 3.

Anand’s political journey in JNU started in 1993 as a student in School of Languages (SL) for Korean studies. He also did diploma in journalism from IIMC and later completed PhD from Rajarshi Tandon Open University, Allahabad in 2018.

While in JNU he was among the founding members of Chatra RJD. He later switched to Congress and then joined the BJP and became the party’s spokesperson in Bihar.

Forty five-year-old Anand’s fight could be tough as he is contesting against three-time sitting RJD MLA from Maner, Bhai Virendra. But he claims that he has the support of the people.

“People know well that this time they are getting a well-educated candidate so the tide is in my favour,” he said.

Upendra Kumar, a resident of Maner, said the upper caste would vote for Anand and there would be division of Yadav votes also. “However, chief minister Nitish Kumar and other top leaders of BJP have to campaign for him at Maner to turn the situation in his favour,” he said.

Sitting Congress MLA Shakeel Ahmed Khan who was JNUSU president in 1992-93, is contesting again from Kadwa. Khan had joined Congress in 1999 and was first elected as MLA from the Kadwa constituency in 2015.

While Khan had contested students’ union polls as a member of the Left-affiliated Students Federation of India (SFI), he joined Congress party as he moved out of university politics.

Another former JNU student, Janata Dal (United) MLC, Tanvir Akhtar, a resident of Sherghati in Gaya, was the JNUSU president in 1991-92 when Khan was vice president. Akhtar had contested the JNUSU polls as a candidate of the National Students Union of India (NSUI). He moved out of the campus but remained with the Congress and was made the party’s member of legislative council. He was also the vice president of the Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee and president of Bihar Youth Congress. He joined JD (U) in 2018.

The BJP’s Bihar unit also has many JNU alumni. The party’s general secretary in Bihar, Devesh Kumar, had unsuccessfully contested for the post of JNUSU vice-president from party’s student wing ABVP in 1993.

Some other JNU alumni in Bihar BJP, who are party’s office-bearers include Sushil Kumar Chaudhary, Ranjan Kumar Gautam and Umashankar Singh.

Former Banka MP, Digvijay Singh, a native of Gidhaur in Bihar’s Jamui district, who died in 2010, was also the general secretary of JNUSU in 1982 from the Students for Democratic Socialism (DYS) outfit. Singh’s daughter Shreyasi Singh is contesting on BJP ticket from Jamui constituency, which is going to polls in the first phase on October 28.