Kanhaiya Kumar meets Nitish, Lalu in Bihar

JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar, who is facing sedition charges and is out on bail, met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad here on Saturday.

Visiting his home state Bihar for two days, Kanhaiya Kumar is also scheduled to meet other politicians who have been supporting him in a shared campaign against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government.

He also visited his father Jaishankar Singh who is suffering from paralysis.

Kanhaiya is also likely to meet BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha, who has long been unhappy with his party's functioning.

Upon his arrival here earlier on Saturday, Kanhaiya told reporters: "I am not here to attend a political meeting. I am here to reach out to people with my thoughts. People of Bihar will understand what I want and where I stand."

Kanhaiya Kumar was welcomed at the airport by a large number of youths, mostly members of student wings of the left parties.

On Sunday, Kanhaiya Kumar will address a meeting here with 'Azadi' being the dominant theme, said a source in the All India Students Federation (AISF) to which he belongs.

Kanhaiya Kumar was arrested on the charge of sedition in February in connection with an event at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus commemorating the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.

It was alleged that "anti-national" slogans were raised during that event by Kanhaiya and other participants.

The Delhi High Court in March granted him interim bail for six months on the condition that the students' leader would not participate actively or passively in any activity "which may be termed anti-national".

On Monday, the JNU authorities imposed a fine of Rs.10,000 on Kanhaiya Kumar and rusticated three other students for taking part in the February event.

Kanhaiya and 19 other JNU students have since been agitating against the punishment handed out to them by the university.

On Thursday, the Delhi High Court heard a plea seeking cancellation of interim bail granted to Kanhaiya Kumar on the ground that his speech after his release from Tihar Jail in March was "anti-national" and he violated the bail conditions.

--IANS

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