Kanhaiya Kumar is CPI candidate from Begusarai

The Communist Party of India a (CPI) has fielded former president of the JNU students’ union, Kanhaiya Kumar, as its candidate from Bihar's Begusarai for the Lok Sabha election.

The decision was taken by the Left on Saturday, a day after Kumar was left out of the opposition coalition in Bihar. He will be joint candidate of the Left parties from Begusarai and faces Union Minister and BJP leader Giriraj Singh in the seat.

Though the CPI may fight couple of other seats too, for now only Begusarai has been cleared in a meeting of state executive in Patna.

Kanhaiya Kumar was widely expected to be the opposition's candidate from Begusarai. However, no seats were given to the CPI and CPI-M, making it clear that Kumar will not be supported by the mahagathbandhan or grand alliance. The seat fell into Tejashwi Yadav's RJD's share.

Left parties in Bihar slammed the opposition for excluding them in the seat-sharing formula, saying the decision was not in sync with the ground realities in the state.

According to sources, while the Congress was keen to accommodate Kumar, the RJD patriarch Lalu Prasad Yadav who negotiated the alliance was vehemently against his candidature.