Why Kanhaiya Kumar Seems More Like An AAP Candidate Than Congress'

Congress candidate from North East Delhi for the Lok Sabha elections, Kanhaiya Kumar met jailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's wife Sunita on Wednesday (1 May).

While Kumar called it a "courtesy meeting" and expressed solidarity with her "against the dictatorship" over Kejriwal's arrest in the Delhi liquor policy, much more seems to be going behind the curtains.

Let's see in chronological order:

15 April: Kumar was declared as the Congress candidate against BJP's incumbent MP Manoj Tiwari.

22 April: After brewing for a week, protests erupted at the Congress' Delhi office with workers raising slogans of "Bahari ummeedwar nahin chalega (outsider candidate will not be accepted)".

The protests were against two Congress candidates: Udit Raj who is fielded from North West Delhi and Kanhaiya Kumar. Kumar had contested the 2019 elections on the Communist Party of India (CPI) symbol from Bihar's Begusarai.

23 April: Kumar gives an interview to Aaj Tak where he praises Arvind Kejriwal for giving free electricity and good schools to the common people of Delhi and criticises putting him into jail.

27 April: Sunita Kejriwal holds her first roadshow in Delhi, where other than the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Communist Party of India's (CPI) flags were also visible.

Many social media users speculated that Kumar might have used his old CPI connection to gather a crowd for Sunita Kejriwal's rally.

28 April: Arvinder Singh Lovely resigned from the post of president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee citing the alliance with AAP and tickets given to "total strangers".

He specifically mentioned Kumar's media bytes of "falsely praising Delhi CM" in his resignation letter and said they are "in direct contravention of the party line."

Lovely accused Kumar of endorsing the "false propaganda of AAP" and asserted that the alliance "was not done in appreciation of AAP's false propaganda" but as a "compromise to improve chances of victory for the party."

From this, it can be reasonably inferred that after Kumar didn't get the support of the local Congress cadre, he started wooing AAP to get some support in elections.

Kumar's praise for Arvind Kejriwal and his supposed work for Delhi could be tactical move to get AAP support. However, he may have had to offer something in return and sending the CPI crowd to Sunita Kejriwal's rally could be a part of such a quid-pro-quo.

While Lovely clearly mentioned in his letter that Kumar's support for AAP is not going down well with the Congress' local unit, Kumar now has to completely rely on AAP's support. This could potentially explain the meeting with Sunita Kejriwal today.

With Congress' local unit protesting against Kumar, him praising Arvind Kejriwal, AAP's works and meeting Sunita Kejriwal, he appears more like an AAP candidate, than of the Congress.