The CPI says its candidate Kanhaiya Kumar is getting 'excellent' support from all segments of society in Begusarai.
M I Khan reports.
A day after the Communist Party of India urged the Rashtriya Janata Dal to withdraw its nominee from the Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar in favour of its candidate Kanhaiya Kumar, the RJD made a similar request to the CPI.
The move may bolster Bharatiya Janata Party candidate Giriraj Singh's chances; the Union minister did not even want to contest the seat.
Begusarai is witnessing a triangular fight between Singh, Kanhaiya and the RJD's Tanvir Hasan.
The constituency goes to the polls on April 29.
Kanhaiya, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University students union president, campaigns hard from early morning till night to woo voters.
A battery of actors, theatre personalities, activists, authors, stage artists, intellectuals and cultural groups from outside Bihar are campaigning for him.
RJD General Secretary Shivanand Tiwari says if the CPI wants to defeat fascist forces, it should retire Kanhaiya Kumar and support the RJD candidate.
"I have requested the CPI and appealed to the party to retire its candidate and support RJD candidate Tanvir Hasan," Tiwari said in Patna.
The media has made Kanhaiya a hero across the country, Tiwari said, adding he has no support base in Begusarai. Kanhaiya, incidentally, hails from Bihat, a village in Begusarai.
"In the last Lok Sabha polls, Hasan got 3.60 lakh votes in Begusarai despite the Modi wave. The CPI, which contested the polls along with the JD-U (Janata Dal-United), got less than 2 lakh votes. Where is the vote for the party?" Tiwari asked.
There are 7 assembly constituencies under the Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency, Tiwari pointed out, and 5 of them are with the RJD and Congress, constituents of the Mahagathbandhan.
The CPI on Wednesday stated that Kanhaiya is getting 'excellent' support from all segments of society in Begusarai and urged the RJD to ask Hasan to retire from the triangular contest.
CPI General Secretary Sudhakar Reddy asserted that the RJD candidate, the runner-up in 2014, was likely to finish third.
'I would therefore urge RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav to consider our appeal to retire Tanvir Hasan from the contest,' Reddy said. 'He can do this much to help Kanhaiya get a decisive victory since the last date of withdrawal of nominations has elapsed.'
