The Congress has appointed former JNU students union president Kanhaiya Kumar as the in-charge of its students body NSUI.

In a statement issued today (6 July), the Congress said that party president Mallikarjun Kharge has "appointed Shri Kanhaiya Kumar as AICC in-charge of National Students Union of India (NSUI)".

Kumar gained nationwide notoriety when seditious slogans calling for the fragmentation of India were raised at an event within Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in February 2016 to mark the anniversary of the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

Kumar was one of the main speakers at the event and was arrested on charges of sedition.

Kanhaiya Kumar was a leader of the All India Students' Federation (AISF) that is affiliated to the Communist Party of India (CPI) and was also the president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union.

He joined the CPI --a natural progression for most members of the AISF--and was elevated to the national executive council of the party.

Kumar’s February 2016 meeting in JNU where the tukde tukde slogans (calling for fragmentation of India) were raised was not the only controversy that dogged Kumar.

He has lent his voice to Pakistan’s allegations that the Indian army had been raping Kashmiri Muslim women.

He was also found guilty by the JNU administration of vulgar behaviour with a female student.

Kumar contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Bihar’s Begusarai, his home district, against BJP’s Giriraj Singh.

Singh had never contested from Begusarai (he is a native of Lakhisarai district) and had previously fought and won the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Nawada.

But despite being an ‘outsider’, Singh trounced Kumar by a mammoth 4.2 lakh votes.

The results came as a big blow not only to Kumar, but also the ‘left-fliberal’ brigade that had projected the controversial student leader as a ‘rising star’ in India’s political firmament.

Later in 2021, Kumar joined the Congress party in the presence of Rahul Gandhi.