Former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar set to lose in North East Delhi

Kanhaiya Kumar campaigns during 2024 elections

Congress candidate and former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) President Kanhaiya Kumar is set to lose in the North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency as per trends at 6.30 pm. This story will be updated as more trends come in.

Here are the latest trends from the North East Delhi Lok Sabha contest:

Trends at 4pm: Kanhaiya Kumar is trailing behind his nearest rival Manoj Tiwari, who is now leading with a commanding margin.

Trends at 3pm: Congress's Kanhaiya Kumar is trailing behind Manoj Tiwari.

Trends at 2 pm: Kanhaiya Kumar is trailing behind his BJP rival.

Trends at 1 pm: As per the latest trends, Kanhaiya Kumar is trailing behind BJP's Manoj Tiwari.

Trends at 12 pm: Kanhaiya Kumar is trailing behind his nearest rival Manoj Tiwari, who is now leading with a commanding margin.

Trends at 11 am: Former JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar is trailing behind BJP’s Manoj Tiwari.

Trends at 10 am: Manoj Tiwari is maintaining a strong lead over his Congress rival.

Trends at 9 am: As per the latest trends, Kanhaiya Kumar is trailing behind BJP's Manoj Tiwari.

Kumar is former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) President. He had lost the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Begusarai on a CPI ticket.

The North East Delhi constituency is dominated by migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. In 2019, BJP won the North East Delhi Lok Sabha seat with its candidate Manoj Tiwari defeating Congress candidate former chief minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit. BJP’s Purvanchali star campaigner has retained the constituency in the Lok Sabha elections since 2014. The North East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency has been a stronghold of the BJP since 2014.

About Kanhaiya Kumar 

Kumar had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections on a Communist Party of India (CPI) ticket from Begusarai in Bihar, where he was born. But he lost to BJP’s Giriraj Singh, who got 57.01 percent votes. Kumar’s vote share stood at 22.02 percent. Tanweer Hassan from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), who also contested from the same constituency in 2019 got 16.17 percent votes.

He later joined Congress in 2021 and is in-charge of the party’s National Students’ Union of India, which is currently presided by Varun Choudhary.

Kumar shot to limelight with his ‘azaadi’ slogans at JNU campus. In February 2016, Kumar was arrested by the Delhi police on charges of sedition at an event in the JNU campus. The event was organised to commemorate the second anniversary of the hanging of Afzal Guru, convicted for the attack on Indian Parliament in 2001. Guru was a member of terrorist organisation Jaish-e-Mohammed. Kanhaiya was given bail in March 2016 and later acquitted by the Delhi High Court.

Kanhaiya joined JNU in 2011 to pursue PhD in African studies. In 2015, he became the president of the JNU students' union. Kumar completed his PhD on the topic ‘The Process of Decolonisation and Social Transformation in South Africa, 1994–2015’ in 2019.

(This story will be updated with the latest trends as they come in).