Names of the candidates for the much-awaited Jawahar Lal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) 2019 elections have been announced by the JNUSU Election Committee.
Similar to last year elections, all the major four left parties such as All India Students' Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) and All India Students' Federation (AISF) have joined hands to form a 'United Left' alliance and will be contesting for one post each.
Rashtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh (RSS) backed Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the students wing of Indian National Congress, Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA )and Chatra Rastriya Janta Dal-CRJD are also in the fray.
Total six candidates are contesting for the post of president. SFI’s Aishe Ghosh is the candidate of the Left Alliance, while Manish Jangid from ABVP, Prashant Kumar of NSUI, Priyanka Bharti from CRJD, Jitendra Suna from BAPSA and Independent candidate Raghvendra Mishra are in the fray.
The Left unity is hoping to repeat the last year's clean sweep on all the four posts. During nominations, AISF took down two names from the nomination list after forming alliance.
This time the post of president has gone to SFI, last year it was held by AISA. DSF is contesting on Vice president post, AISF on Joint secretary post and AISA is contesting for the post of General Secretary. Justifying this AISA's JNU unit president Simone Zoya Khan said-"It is in spirit of unity and comradeship".
ABVP, which last won a JNUSU post in 2015 when Saurabh Kumar Sharma was elected for the Joint Secretary's post, is hoping to win this time again and contesting on all four posts.
"We want to make sure that the university is known for its courses and quality of education, rather than that incident," a senior ABVP leader said.
JNUSU elections usually revolve around national issues and reflected in Presidential debate (to be held on September 4). This time parties are also promising better hostel facilities, more books in library, security and seat increase in various courses.
The JNUSU election will be held on September 6, 2019 and the results will be announced on September 8, 2019.