New Delhi: Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) is making its debut in the upcoming student union elections at Jawaharlal Nehru University.

The Chhatra RJD - the students' wing of the party - will contest the campus polls scheduled for September 14 with its candidate Jayant Kumar, who is from Bihar's Khagaria, set to fight for the post of president. His candidature was announced by RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav here on Tuesday.

Jayant, who is pursuing his Ph.D in Media Studies, has set his eyes on a post that was once occupied by Chandrashekhar Prasad of the All India Students Association (AISA). Chandrashekhar, also from Bihar, was twice president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) in the mid-nineties. He was assassinated in his hometown Siwan on March 31, 1997, allegedly at the behest of gangster-turned-MP Mohammed Shahabuddin, who later joined the RJD.

Like Chandreshekhar, who split from the CPI-backed All India Students Federation (AISF) to join AISA, Jayant, who was the secretary of JNU's AISF unit until recently, quit to start a unit of Chhatra RJD in Delhi.

The post of JNUSU president is held by AISA, which is fielding its JNU unit vice-president N. Sai Balaji, an international studies Ph.D student.

Jayant said the JNU students' union needs representatives with courage. "At a time when people are being lynched for their views, religion or caste, and when reservation is being diluted through the roster system, I am glad that I joined the RJD whose leader Lalu Prasad has not joined hands with the Sangh, even once. In the run-up to the 2019 (Lok Sabha) polls, we will see more regressive policies imposed on JNU and we need JNUSU representatives who can inspire courage among students, and not get scared themselves."

Jayant, once a confidant of former JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, fell out with his mentor. In his resignation letter from AISF and CPI, Jayant wrote to party general secretary S.S. Reddy, and alleged that Kanhaiya had "overshadowed our core values".