NEW DELHI: A united Left alliance has retained all four posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) election, beating RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) with a considerable margin for all four seats.
The university, which until Saturday night was on the boil after counting of votes was suspended as ABVP leaders had allegedly stormed into the counting centre, erupted in celebrations on Sunday morning.
Four organisations — Left-backed All-India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) and All India Students’ Federation (AISF) — had come together to contest JNUSU polls under one umbrella. Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) were also in the fray, but their main opposition was ABVP.
N Sai Balaji of AISA won the president’s post, defeating Lalit Pandey of ABVP by 1,179 votes. For the vice-president’s post, Sarika Chaudhary of the DSF got 2,692 votes, defeating ABVP’s Geetasri Boruah by 1,680 votes.
Aejaz Ahmed Rather of SFI bagged the general secretary’s post, polling 2,423 votes against nearest rival ABVP candidate Ganesh Gurjar’s 1,123 votes. The post of joint secretary went to Amutha Jayadeep of AISF, who got 2,047 votes against 1,247 of ABVP’s Venkat Choubey.
According to the data obtained from the university’s election committee, a total of 1,148 NOTA votes were polled for all four posts.
This year’s election recorded 67.8 per cent voter turnout, the highest in six years. Balaji gave the credit of victory to the students saying they chose an alliance that is “not afraid” to fight for them.