Begusarai: On Wednesday, Kanhaiya Kumar, who is contesting from Bihar’s Begusarai as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) candidate, faced protests by angry locals during his road-show in one of the villages in the constituency. A few youths ‘gheraoed’ Kumar, a former Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) student leader, and asked him what kind of ‘azaadi’ or ‘freedom’ did he want.

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In a video that has gone viral on social media, a man can be seen confronting Kumar regarding the infamous JNU incident in 2016, during which Kumar, along with another student leader Umar Khalid, had allegedly raised anti-national slogans as well as a chant of ‘azaadi’. As per the video, locals stopped Kumar’s motor cavalcade and questioned him over his political stance as a student leader. “Kaunsi azaadi chaahte ho? (What kind of freedom do you want?) The poor don't want Azaadi (freedom). It is good that you wanted to become a politician but why did you oppose the 10% reservation to economically backward class?” the youth asked the CPI leader. As the youth accused Kanhaiya of raising ‘Bharat tere tukde honge’  slogan at JNU in 2016, the CPI leader asked him if he was from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). However, the youth replied in negative and said that he would be voting for the NOTA (None of the Above) option in the election.

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Here it is to be noted that Kumar has faced protests in his constituency in the past as well. Earlier this month, locals had shown black flags to the CPI leader when he was travelling from Begusarai to Lohianagar. Kanhaiya Kumar, who is making a political debut in this election, will be taking on Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister Giriraj Singh from Begusarai. Kanhaiya was named as one of the 10 main accused in the charge sheet filed by the Delhi Police in the 2016 JNU sedition case.