Kanhaiya Kumar, Jignesh Mevani to join Congress today

Congress general secretary (organization) KC Venugopal, party's Bihar incharge Bhakta Charan Das and national spokesperson Randeep S Surjewala will be present when Kumar and Mevani join the Congress.

Before the formal joining, the two activist-turned politicians will go to Bhagat Singh Park at ITO at 4 pm to garland the statue of Bhagat Singh on the occasion of 114th birth anniversary of the freedom fighter. Rahul Gandhi will also attend the garlanding event organised by the Indian Youth Congress.

The two leaders will also address the media, along with the Congress leaders, after the joining.

The entry of the two fiery speakers, from Gujarat and Bihar, will certainly be good optics for the Congress, given that many young leaders such as Jyotiraditya Scindia, Jitin Prasada and Sushmita Dev have quit the party in the past couple of years.

The Congress is likely to give Kumar a role in Bihar state Congress and Mevani in Gujarat, which will go for polls by the end of 2022.

Also read | Can Jignesh Mevani, Kanhaiya Kumar bring some change in Congress?

Mevani rose to national prominence during the 2016 protests following the flogging incident in which seven Dalit youths were tortured in Una, Gujarat, by members of a cow protection group. Kumar shot to prominence as a firebrand JNU student union president with his speeches against the Narendra Modi-led BJP government in 2015-16.

Mevani won the Vadgam (reserved) assembly constituency in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat in 2017 with the backing of Congress while Kumar contested the 2019 Lok Sabha election from Begusarai on a CPI ticket but lost to the BJP’s Giriraj Singh.

“We welcome all the revolutionary youths who are willing to work for the development of the country and strengthen the Congress party and the ideals of (Mahatma) Gandhi, Sardar (Patel) and (Jawaharlal) Nehru,” said Hardik Patel, who is also expected to be present at the function in Delhi.

Patel described Mevani as “an old friend” and said his entry would help the party, both at the state and at the national level, according to a PTI report.