JNU student leader Kanhaiya Kumar who is often accused of supporting Kashmiri separatist Afzal Guru and Naxalite's operation against the Indian state joins the Congress party in the presence of Rahul Gandhi. Earlier in the day, posters welcoming Kanhaiya Kumar to the party were put up outside the Congress office in Delhi.

Kanhaiya Kumar had joined CPI just before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections contesting unsuccessfully from his hometown Begusarai in Bihar. According to sources he was discontented with the senior leadership of CPI and wanted to be elevated as the Bihar state party chief and the chairman of the party’s top election committee that decides candidates for elections.

CPI Bihar state secretary Ram Naresh Pandey had confirmed that some days ago Kanhaiya had taken out the AC installed by him in the CPI's state office in Patna raising speculations about his resignation.

Lawyer and activist Jignesh Mevani who is also an independent MLA from Gujarat also joined the Congress party along with Kanhaiya Kumar. Interestingly he had supported a pro-Pakistan human rights report on Kashmir by the UN earlier which even the Congress party had dismissed supporting the Modi Government and India's national interest.

ANI also reported that Kumar is likely to get a role in the Bihar unit of the Congress party and Mevani in Gujarat, which is scheduled to hold the assembly elections at the end of next year.