With high voting percentage of around 68 per cent, students Union election at Jawaharlal Nehru University saw massive participation of students who flock outside the polling booth since morning to exercise their franchise. The contest is for the four posts of central panel and school councilors.
Polling was held at 4 schools of JNU including School of International Studies (SIS)-879/1341, School of Languages-1764/2531, School of Social Sciences -1325/2163 and School of Environmental Sciences -1217/1609.
The polling was held in two shifts i.e. morning and the afternoon with a lunch gap in between. The voting percentage is said to be the highest since 2012. Last year the voting percentage was around 58 percent.
Queues were observed outside the polling booths while activists and contestants belonging to different student organizations in fray to elections were seen sloganeering and campaigning with full enthusiasm. According to the information given by the election committee of JNU 5185 votes were casted out of total 7650.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyrathi Parishad (ABVP) is said to pose a tough battle to the Left Unity in the JNU Students’ Union elections. Left parties have alleged that ABVP that enjoys “proximity” to the JNU administration have pitched in its cadre from the outside JNU for campaigning and reaching out to students. ABVP particularly tried to woo first year students through social media.
While members of ABVP refuted the charges and said that outside cadre of left parties have already camped in JNU and are applying all means to ‘lure’ the voters and have also employed “peer pressure” and “senior pressure” technique to gain vote.
While the left alleged that the posters promising to ban short dresses for women in JNU, protect the university from “anti-national comrades” and close eateries serving non-vegetarian food have come up on its campus was purportedly posted by the RSS-affiliate ABVP, the ABVP has denied the claims categorically.
“Umbrella” elections: The student union election in JNU is marked by the presence of umbrella which is used by activist of different student organisations and serves the dual purpose of campaigning and providing shade from scorching heat. This year all the left parties who have come under one umbrella of “Left Unity” to defeat RSS-affiliated ABVP in elections but the use of real umbrella by the parties make the elections look special.
The JNUSU elections are held on paper ballot and results are expected to come on Sunday.