Celebrations broke out after results of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections were announced on Sunday with the Left Unity winning all four central panel posts defeating the RSS-affiliated ABVP by considerable margins.
Cries of ‘Lal Salaam’ (red salute) rent the air and supporters were dancing to the beats of drums.
After the results were announced, the ABVP and the NSUI claimed their vote share has increased over the years in the election that was marred by allegations of “bias” by the poll committee, violence and suspension of counting for nearly 14 hours.
The ABVP said it was the trust shown by students towards the party that forced the Left parties to forge an alliance. “The ABVP will continue its fight against Left violence.
We are thankful to the students for making us the single largest student organisation on campus. We will continue to be a constructive opposition on JNU campus, and will keep fighting for students’ rights.”
The Left-backed All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) and All India Students’ Federation (AISF) came together to form the ‘United Left’ alliance.
According to the university election committee, the Left grouping’s presidential candidate, N Sai Balaji of the AISA, defeated Lalit Pandey of the ABVP by a margin of 1,179 votes. Balaji bagged 2,161 votes while Lalit Pandey of ABVP bagged 982 votes. Thallapelli Praveen of Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Organisation (BAPSA) bagged 675 votes. While Jayant Kumar who contested for first time from the Chhatra RJD bagged 540 votes more than that of NSUI’s Vikas Yadav who got 402.
For the post of vice president, Sarika Chaudhary of the DSF garnered 2,692 votes and defeated ABVP candidate Geetasri Boruah by a margin of 1,680 votes.
Aejaj Ahmed of the SFI polled 2,423 votes and won the post of general secretary, by defeating Ganesh Gurjar of the ABVP by 1,300 votes. Amutha of the AISF defeated ABVP’s Venkat Choubey by 800 votes to win the post of joint secretary. Amutha bagged 2,047 votes.
Balaji is a student of JNU’s School of International Studies while Chaudhary, Ahmed and Amutha belong to the School of Social Sciences.
Besides the Left bloc and the ABVP, there were candidates of NSUI and the BAPSA (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association), a student group advocating Dalit causes.
The voter turnout in the keenly contested JNUSU election on Friday was 67.8 per cent, believed to be the highest in six years. About 5,170 students cast their votes.
Himanshu Kulshrestha, chairperson, election committee, said, “14 representatives of 10 candidates were present when the ballot boxes were opened. There have also been allegations of a “biased” election committee and violence during the election process. Last year too, the Left student groups had won all four central panel posts.”
The EC claimed that the three announcements were made over loudspeaker asking all candidates to come or send their representatives as counting agents with third call announced as the final call.
There was high drama on Saturday as counting was suspended for close to 14 hours after the ABVP staged protests claiming it was not informed about the start of the counting process.
The counting, which was suspended at 4 am, resumed at 6.30 pm after two teachers from the Grievance Redressal Cell were appointed as observers for the exercise.
The ABVP and the Left groups indulged in a blame game as they accused each other of roughing up their members on the campus.
President of ABVP-JNU unit Vijay Kumar had alleged that counting of votes was being done without adhering to the rules and had said the biased way of handling elections put a question mark on the election committee’s neutrality.