Congress picks Kanhaiya Kumar to take on BJP's Manoj Tiwari in North East Delhi

The Congress has fielded Kanhaiya Kumar from the North East Delhi constituency against sitting BJP MP Manoj Tiwari in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

Kumar was thrown into the limelight as the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union.

He was arrested on charges of sedition in 2016, over a speech within the campus. He told a packed auditorium that he was seeking freedom within India, and urged his supporters to raise 'Azadi' slogans. The government accused him of anti-national activity, but the charges did not stick in court.

From the left leaning All India Students Federation (AISF), Kumar went on to join the Communist Party of India (CPI). He contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Bihar's Begusarai, and lost against Union minister and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Giriraj Singh.

Kumar switched to the Congress in 2021 and was inducted into the Congress Working Committee in 2023.

He has now been chosen to take on Manoj Tiwari, two-time MP from North East Delhi. In 2019, the Bhojpuri actor-turned-politician had defeated former Delhi chief minister Sheila Dikshit. Tiwari has also served as the president of the Delhi unit of the BJP.

Can Kumar turn the tables in Tiwari's home ground?

Delhi will go to polls on May 25 and the results will be declared on June 4.