Left unity is heading for a sweeping victory in JNUSU (JNU student elections). The counting till Sunday evening was 5,050 ballots out of 5,762.
Trends so far showed a lead for Left unity on all four central panel seats- the president, vice-president, general secretary, and the joint secretary leaving both ABVP and BAPSA (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association) at second and third positions.
Left Unity’s candidates-
Aishe Ghosh leads the race for President with 2,069 votes.
Saket Moon for Vice president position leading with 3,028 votes
Md. Danish for Joint Secretary position leading with 2,938 votes
The polls witnessed a 67.9 percent voter turnout on Friday, believed to be the highest in seven years.
The elections saw tensions from the voting day itself when the students accused the dean of student affairs of interfering in the electoral process and trying to “intimidate the election commission”. The JNU Vice-chancellor, M Jagdesh Kumar who is known for his links with RSS was accused of intimidating and preventing free and fair elections on the campus.
Last year also the Left Unity won all the four central panel seats. There was also drama when ABVP tried to disrupt the counting process and the JNU administration refused to notify the elected candidates for one year. It was forced to do so after a Delhi high court order.
This year two students accused the JNUSU election committee of rejecting their nomination without citing any reason. They filed a case in Delhi high court against the EC. The Delhi High Court on Friday, 6 September, restrained the University from notifying the results of the polls till 17 September. The results were earlier scheduled to be declared on 8 September.
This election also saw an independent candidate, Ragavendra Mishra, a PhD student in Sanskrit, known as ‘JNU’s Yogi’ running for president position. Mishra, a former Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) member says that the RSS-backed student wing does not take care of true Hindutva ideology on the campus and he has decided to save “fading of pure Hindu ideology”. He got 47 votes till the last count.
The Congress-affiliated NSUI also fielded a candidate for the president’s post, while the Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal also contested for posts of president and vice-president.
