HYDERABAD: Caste and identity based politics has been the base of student politics at University of Hyderabad. This year, however, in the UoH student union elections, lack of women representation has managed to hog the limelight. With the Congress-affiliated NSUI is the only organisation to field a woman candidate for the presidential post, ABVP and the Alliance for Social Justice (ASJ) have received flak for being non-inclusive— a miscalculation that could cost both the right and left camps dearly.
This time ASJ did not field a single woman. “Considering that it won by a slim margin last year, SFI and ASA should have had a woman on their panel. Here ABVP has an upper hand as its poll panel has two women for cultural and joint secretary posts,”said Barsha Chetia. The ABVP has defended its stand by saying it had fielded a woman as presidential candidate last year. A left-supporter Amritha Mohan in ASJ’s defence said that, women issues have not been ignored.
Meanwhile, NSUI’s Anju Rao calls herself a ‘meritorious female candidate with work to show’. she said, “I am a middle-class Telugu girl and could have spoken in Telugu at the debate but no one can shame me for who I am. I have put efforts to reach where I am,” she said.