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There was always speculation about when or in what role JNU Students' Union president Kanhaiya Kumar would be involved in electoral politics. In one of the first such instances, Kumar made a speech (video above) on May 13, campaigning in Pattambi for Mohammed Mohsin, a research student in JNU, who is making his debut in elections as the Left Democratic Front (LDF) candidate against local Congress MLA CP Muhammed, who won in 2011 with a margin of 12,000 votes.

While saying that the only way to change the country and its politics was to take charge of the political scenario and get elected to take part in the government's functioning, Kumar is his trademark fiery self. His 38-minute-long speech is interspersed with frequent war cries and calls to action like "We are not anti-national, we are anti-RSS, we are anti-Modi" and an inversion of Modi's electoral slogan, "Ab aur sehna hoga mehengai ki maar, aa gayi hain nikammi Modi sarkaar (We are going to continue having to deal with inflation now that Modi is in power).

He begins by apologising to the gathered crowd for not knowing Malayalam and for being unsuccessful in his attempt to postpone the date of the JNU entrance examination, which clashed with the elections on Monday, May 16.

Kumar makes frequent references to "PoMoneModi", saying about the Prime Minister's controversial comments comparing Kerala and Somalia, "It's we the students who use subsidies and get a Ph D in African studies, but it's Modi who becomes an expert on Somalia."

There's also a humorous aside on why he feels so safe in Kerala, "Here is a rally that is full. It is in the open but not a single shoe has been thrown – that is true democracy!" Also not off limits is Modi's educational background. He tells the Prime Minister, "You study 'entire' politics, we study politics our entire lives".

Attacking the BJP's electoral promises, Kumar isn't exactly original when he claims the BJP has created a smokescreen by using the national and anti-national debate to disguise it failure to create two crore jobs, return Rs 15 lakh to every citizen and bring back black money.

And now, he says, the present government, who "fights elections based on the bullet train" and "asks for votes based on who is national or anti-national", has set its sights on students. He called on the voters to remember the work of former Kerala chief minister EMS Namboodiripad, who was the first Indian chief minister not from the Congress.

Addressing the accusations he has faced about becoming a "political leader" who "travels the entire country campaigning", his response is, "If you are from the RSS or the BJP, I don't want to say anything to you because it won't achieve anything, a doctored video is playing in your mind." But if "you are willing to listen, then I only want to say one thing – we don't play politics to fight elections or create a government, we do it to bring socialism and equality to society."