The Right-wing student wing ABVP made a dent in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) polls by securing the seat of Joint Secretary while rest of the seats were secured by Left wing student groups.
For the top post of President, Kanhaiya Kumar of CPI’s student wing, AISF won the race by a margin of 67 votes from ultra-left AISA candidate. ABVP’s Saurabh Kumar Sharma won the post of Joint Secretary, while AISA candidate Rama Naga won General Secretary’s post. Shehla Rashid Shora of AISA won the vice-presidential seat. ABVP’s comeback in the Left-dominated varsity came as a surprise for many. Last time, it was in 2000, that Sandeep Mahapatra had won the presidential post.
All India Students’ Association (AISA), which earlier won all four seats in JNUSU, has won only two seats this time.
ABVP’s Saurabh Sharma won the post of Joint Secretary with 1,154 votes by defeating AISA’s candidate Hamid Raza who got 1126 votes. Meanwhile,31 councillors belonging to several schools in JNU were also elected on Sunday, in which nine were AISA candidates and 11 were ABVP candidates. A total of 83 candidates were in fray for councillors in all centres of JNU.The polling that was conducted in five centres saw a turnout of 53.3 percent.
On Saturday ABVP had swept all top seats in Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections. Last year, ABVP had come close but hadn’t managed to capture a post. ABVP ended up second in two posts, vice president and general secretary.
ABVP secured 1,153 votes for the post of Vice President while the winner AISA bagged 1,387; its vote count for the post of General Secretary was 946 to AISA’s 1159. It was not too far behind the runners up to the president’s post too. While AISA bagged 962 votes, ABVP secured 924.
All contests, including the joint-secretary that ABVP won, were close and that in itself is a leg up for the ABVP. According to political experts this trend shows that the ideological right is getting more acceptances among the youth and the scenario in national politics is affecting JNU.