SFI girls create history in KU student union poll; senate election called off

The senate election was called off following violent clashes between the KSU and SFI.

SFI Kerala Facebook page

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The SFI swept the Kerala University student union election on Wednesday, with an all-woman panel fielded by it, winning all the seven seats for the first time in the history of the varsity. Meanwhile, the senate election was called off following violent clashes between the KSU and SFI.

Besides the seven seats, SFI also won all five seats in the accounts committee, eight of the 10 seats in the student council and and 13 of the 15 seats in the executive committee. Sumi S of SN College, Kollam, and Amita Babu of Goverment Women’s College, Thiruvananthapuram, were elected chairperson and general secretary of the union respectively.

Absalna N of University College, Thiruvananthapuram, Athira Premkumar of SD College, Alappuzha and Nandana S Kumar of Emmanuel College, Vazhichal, Thiruvananthapuram were elected vice-chairpersons. The newly elected joint secretaries are: Ananya S of TKMM College, Nangiyarkulangara and Anjana Das of TKM College, Kollam.

Later, during counting of votes for the senate election, a violent clash broke out between the SFI and activists.

They clashed over allegations of missing ballot papers. Around 15 ballot papers were reportedly missing during the vote count, leading to a confrontation.

The unrest forced authorities to halt the ongoing vote counting, which had already completed two rounds. KSU demanded that the elections be redone, claiming the missing ballots compromised the integrity of the results.

Meanwhile, SFI workers accused KSU of manipulating the process and insisted that they were responsible for tampering with the missing papers. Police from Museum and Cantonment stations were deployed outside the senate hall to maintain order.

Despite police intervention, the situation remained tense late into the night. As the altercations went on violently, police started to arrest protestors and take them into custody.

SFI had earlier won the university union elections. However, the conflict broke out after KSU secured two seats in the initial rounds of counting.