JNU Students’ Union president Kanhaiya Kumar on Wednesday hinted that he is unlikely to campaign for any party in the upcoming West Bengal and Kerala Assembly polls.

After the JNUSU president’s first address to JNU students after his release from prison on interim bail in a sedition case, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury had said Mr Kumar would campaign for the Left parties in the Assembly polls.

Mr Kumar said on Wednesday he has already clarified that mainstream politics is not his calling. “I am a student and want to be a teacher after I finish my Ph.D. However, I will continue with activism even then. Two of my friends are still in jail, we have raised a whole lot of issues — ranging from Rohith Vemula’s case and now the Allahabad University row. There is so much to do for the students that it is unlikely for me to take that much time to travel for campaigning,” added Mr Kumar.

The JNUSU president also hit back at Union minister M. Venkaiah Naidu, who had claimed Mr Kumar was enjoying free publicity after his release from jail. “(Mr) Naidu said that I and other JNU students are enjoying the publicity and should rather go study. I want to tell him what we are doing is activism, but what his government is doing is politics. Does he know the difference between the two He should know this before making such comments,” Mr Kumar said.

After his fiery speech on return to the campus after 18 days in Tihar, Mr Naidu had advised the student leader to focus on academics.

“Kanhaiya is getting free publicity and is enjoying it. Why are they getting into politics If they are interested in politics, they can leave studies and join politics. Simple. Join your favourite party,” Mr Naidu had said.

The JNUSU president also criticised the minister for “advising” him to study. “The entire country knows how difficult it is to get admission in the JNU. Do they think we survive here without studying Our motto is ‘study and struggle,’ only the ones who are scared of the intellectual products of JNU call it politics.”

Mr Kumar also asserted that Mr Naidu’s statement was “ironical” as he himself had started his career in politics as an ABVP student leader in 1973 after being elected as the students’ union president of the Andhra University Colleges. Mr Kumar was arrested on February 12 in a sedition case linked to an event on the campus against hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised.

He was granted an interim bail for six months by the Delhi high court last week, but two other students, Umar Khalid and Anirban Bhattacharya, are still in police custody in connection with the same case.