LEFT WINS JNU POLLS

For the post of the President, Left Unity (AISA-SFI-DSF) candidate Geeta polled 1,506 votes

NEW DELHI: The United left alliance have swept the JNUSU polls, and gain a landslide victory in the student union polls. Students reposed their faith in left, while knowing well what a saffron ideology tinted campus would mean- a systematic assault on left intelligentsia.

However, the ABVP managed to come second in all four central panel post- president, vice president, general secretary and joint secretary— building on last year’s two runner-up positions. Whereas, Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association ( BAPSA) confident that they have pave way into its vote share at JNUSU.

According to Saket Bahuguna, ABVP’S national media convenor, “In this JNUSU polls, the ABVP has come up as the single largest student organization despite the victory of the left alliance (AISA, SFI, DSF) in all the four seats. The party has consolidated its stronghold of the school of science, from where its presidential candidate, Nidhi Tripathi, secured more votes than any other candidate.

He added, “Now, with more than 4,000 votes together on four central posts, the ABVP is the only party, who won 10 councillor seats, which is the highest number for a single student political wing”. The ABVP swept almost all seats in the Science schools.

Presidential candidate Tripathi said it was a huge moral victory for the RSS student wing. “Three parties had to come together to fight us, which shows that we have considerable strength.”

In a marginal contested union poll, students of the varsity, chose “Lal salam” over “Saffron”. For the post of the President, Geeta, the Left Unity (AISA-SFI-DSF) candidate polled 1,506 votes. The runner-up, Nidhi Tripathi, presidential candidate from ABVP polled 1,042 votes.

Meanwhile, Dalit ideology association, Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), an alternative for students over left ideology stands third in poll. BAPSA presidential candidate, Shabana Ali polled 935 votes.

In a triangular contest, much hyped candidate, Aparajita Raja, daughter of CPI leader, D Raja could only be able to garner only 416 votes. “Aparajita has been set as a strong candidate for the post of the president but left supporters did not come out to cast vote for her candidature,” said a student at JNU campus.

Another student said, “Several student agreed that Aparajita, would have jumped into this poll to cut the left votes, and to create space for ABVP. But, JNU students were mindful of the consequences, so, they voted for left alliance”.

For the post of Vice President, Left Unity candidate Simone Zoya Khan polled 1,876 votes while Durgesh Kumar from ABVP polled 1,028 votes. BAPSA’S nominee Subodh Kunwar ranked third with 910 votes.

Following the trend, Left Unity candidates who stood for the post of General Secretary and Joint Secretary, recorded an impressive lead in the vote share. While Left Unity polled 2,028 votes for the post of General Secretary, ABVP lagged far behind with 975 votes.

Interestingly, a large number of students, especially in the science schools opted for NOTA. A total of 1512 NOTA votes were polled, as opposed to 728 total votes for NSUI across all posts.