Ghost of Rohit Vemula continues to haunt the Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, the students wing of the RSS in Hyderabad Central University.
The United Front for Social Justice (UFFSJ), an alliance of Students Federation of India, Dalit Students Union, Tribal Students Fourm, Bahujan Samaj Front, and Telangana Vidhyarthy Vedika, has swept the HCU students elections while the ABVP has drawn a blank.
In the elections, the result of which were announced late last night, Kuldip Singh Negi was elected the president with 1406 votes against Gopal Krishna of ABVP-OBCA alliance who polled 1354 votes.
The elections were dominatedby the issue of caste discrimination and social justice with the suicide by Dalit research scholar Rohit Vemula in the campus earlier this year becoming the main topic of the campaign.
Apart from the ABVP, the Ambedkar Students Association was also vanquished in the elections as all the posts went to the left backed alliance of various organisations.
Bukya Sundar of the alliance was elected vice president with 1701 votes while Suman Damera is the new general secretary who polled 1842 votes.
The elections were held amid unprecedented security arrangements in view of the prolonged unrest, which had gripped the campus following Rohith’s suicide. The incident triggered a big storm against the Vice Chancellor Appa Rao Podile and some BJP leaders including the then minister of state for human resources Smiriti Irani and the Minister of state for labor Bandaru Dattatreya. The protesting students had demanded action against them and some ABVP leaders holding them responsible or harassing Rohith Vemula by suspending him from the campus and driving him to suicide.
Rohith Vemula gradually metamorphosised in to a symbol of protest against caste discrimination and for social justice not only in HCU campus but across the country.