Patna: Former Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar is likely to contest the 2019 general elections from the Begusarai Lok Sabha constituency, once known as the Leningrad of Bihar which is currently represented by the BJP.

Bhola Singh, the incumbent MP, had won the 2014 elections by defeating the RJD's Tanveer Hassan with a margin of over 58,000 votes. The CPI candidate came third.

Kanhaiya, who is expected to contest on a CPI ticket, is yet to fight any public election.

Begusarai was once considered a CPI stronghold and even sent an MP in 1967. However, its hold over the constituency has declined sharply. Former director-general of police D.P. Ojha contested the polls in 2005 with the support of all Left parties but could muster only 5,000-odd votes.

This time, the Left parties hope to get the support of the RJD and of the sitting MP Bhola Singh, a known party-hopper who has been critical of the Union government.

"An informal understanding has been reached between all Left parties to field Kanhaiya as a candidate from Begusarai Lok Sabha seat in Bihar," CPI state secretary Satya Narayan Singh told The Telegraph over phone. "Talks will be initiated with the RJD, the leading constituent in the Grand Alliance, and with the Congress to project Kanhaiya as a joint Opposition candidate from the seat in the 2019 general elections."

The in-principal approval over Kanhaiya assumes significance. As JNUSU president Kanhaiya took potshots at the Narendra Modi government's policies and was seen as a torch-bearer of communist politics across the country, including Bihar, after being arrested by Delhi Police in February 2016 on charges of orchestrating anti-India slogans in an event held inside the JNU campus in New Delhi.

Kanhaiya, a native of Beehat panchayat in Barauni block of Begusarai, had conducted a public outreach campaign in the constituency as part of his Samvad Yatra in July-August this year aimed at gauging social dynamics in the area.

"The clearance, though informal, over Kanhaiya's name gains significance as the Begusarai seat had not been won by any Left party leader, whether CPI or any other party, since Yogendra Sharma bagged it in 1967," a senior CPI functionary said.

"The aim is to field a strong candidate who could garner mass support capitalising on the failures of the Modi government at the Centre and the Nitish Kumar regime in Bihar. He (Kanhaiya) would be the best option: he is known for his oratory skills and has been a vocal critic of central government policies," the functionary, who did not wish to be named, said.

Asked if RJD chief Lalu Prasad too has agreed on Kanhaiya's name, CPI's Satya Narayan Singh said: "As per our talks with Lalu on earlier occasions, he had given in-principal approval to field Kanhaiya as a joint Opposition candidate from Begusarai."

He added that CPI's national executive committee will make a formal announcement after a rally in Patna on October 25.

Though as of now no official decision has been taken, all Left parties - the CPM, CPI-ML, Forward Bloc, SUCI and Revolutionary Socialist Party - have agreed on endorsing Kanhaiya's candidature to fight on the Begusarai seat, the CPI state secretary said.

Prior to 2014, the constituency, 125km east of Patna, never elected a Sangh parivar member - either from the Jan Sangh or the BJP - to the Lok Sabha since 1952.

Barauni, part of the constituency, was once the industrial hub of Bihar - it had a refinery, thermal power plant, fertiliser factory and ancillary industries. The refinery is still there but not much else - the fertiliser factory closed down some years ago.

The factories spawned trade unions leading to communist domination of the area for much of the seventies and eighties, earning the township the tag of Leningrad - the Russian city that was the nerve-centre of the October Revolution of 1917. Starting with Chandrashekhar Singh, the first communist to be elected to the Bihar Assembly in 1962, the Barauni Assembly segment - now called Teghra post delimitation - a CPI member represented the area in an unbroken line until 2010 when the BJP won the seat.#