Students’ election committee of the disbanded GSCASH in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on Friday declared the results for the elections conducted to pick four student representatives.
An MPhil student and Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association candidate, Magare Bhupali Vitthal, secured 1,308 votes, PhD student Shreya Ghosh belonging to a left-leaning group got 1,189 votes and Srabani Chakraborty of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) won 1,144 votes. Two candidates, Chetna Trivedi of All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Swati Simha, ended up in a tie by securing 1,122 votes each.
“In case of a tie, re-election is an option. But nothing has been decided as of now,” Bhagat Singh Saini, chairperson of the poll committee, said.
The panel had conducted the elections on Thursday defying restrictions imposed by the administration. But it received support from a resolution passed unanimously in JNUSU’s Extraordinary University General Body Meeting (EUGBM) on September 22.
The Chief Proctor and Registrar of the Central varsity had warned Saini and others of action should they hold elections of the disbanded GSCASH. A total of 29.93 per cent voter turnout was recorded, Saini said.
RSS-affiliated ABVP, which did not take part in the elections, called it “murder of democracy” and blamed the administration, JNUSU and JNU Teachers Association for dissolution of GSCASH.
“ABVP would contest any GSCASH election organised in a free, fair and legitimate manner by the Election Committee as an institution and not through JNUSU’s mandate,” ABVP said in a statement.
