Kanhaiya poster boy for Assam Congress, Left

Student leaders and technocrats, including IIT graduates, seem to be in greater demand than politicians to help ensure victory in the forthcoming Assembly polls.

If Prashant Kishor tops the list of election planners, JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar and the dalit scholar who committed suicide, Rohith Vemula, have become poster boys for the ruling Congress party in Assam.

However, soon after Congress party posters showing Kanhaiya Kumar behind bars and photographs of Rohith Vemula hanging from a rooftop in flooded Assam, an alliance of six Left political parties on Tuesday announced that Mr Kumar would campaign for the alliance in the April 4 and 11 elections in Assam.

CPI(M) leader Deven Bhattacharya told reporters that six Left parties have decided to contest the elections under the banner of the United Left Forum. Veteran CPI leader Drupad Borgohain said there was a possibility of Mr Kumar campaigning in Assam. The JNUSU president, who is facing sedition charges, is likely to campaign for the Left parties in West Bengal and Kerala as well. Though the Congress party is silent about the posters of Kanhaiya Kumar and Rohith Vemula, it has already hired a group of graduates from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) who have deployed a “booth micromanagement” strategy to cultivate voters for the party. They have come up a “booth micromanagement programme” that involves recruiting three volunteers — one young, one elderly and one female — for every 100 voters.

Earlier, Mr Gogoi had also tried to rope in noted election strategist Prashant Kishor to plan out his election. However, Mr Kishor in his prescription for Assam suggested replacing three-time chief minister Tarun Gogoi. “He also suggested having an alliance with the AIUDF, which has support among immigrant Muslims,” said a senior Congress leader, adding, “Both the ideas were shot down by the AICC as well as the Assam PCC.”