ABVP retains DU, Left sweeps JNU

NEW DELHI: No new script to the students politics of DU and JNU -- with the right-wing ABVP retaining its stronghold, while in the case of the later it’s a clean sweep by the Left alliance of

AISA

and

SFI

on Saturday. While ABVP won three (president, vice president and secretary) of the four central panel posts of DUSU, the Left alliance won all the four posts.

Amit Tanwar

of ABVP is the new

DUSU

president and

Mohit Kumar Pandey

of AlSA is the new JNUSU president.

If the main goal of the Left was to decimate the right-wing ABVP this election, it has been achieved and then some. And on the other hand ABVP credits the “nationalism” issue as one of the reason for its fourth consecutive success in DUSU.

JNUSU results were declared on Saturday night, same day as the DUSU one -- a record for post-Lyngdoh Committee elections and a remarkable achievement by the election committee considering the paper ballots are counted manually in JNU and there's no EVM in sight.

The contrast between the two campuses is stark where in JNUSU only did AISA-SFI leave ABVP biting the dust on central panel posts, its wings have been clipped in the schools as well. ABVP has scored just one councillor seat -- massive drop from last -year’s 11 -- and that in Sanskrit Studies. But in DU its vote share remained almost intact for last four years, recording 34.5% this year, way more than its arch-rival 24.7% and AISA’s 11.8% (these are for the post of president). While over 45,400 votes were polled in DUSU, JNUSU votes polled was 5,181.

Tanwar defeated his closest rival

Nikhil Yadav

of NSUI by a margin of 4,664 votes, which is the highest margin in DUSU polls this year, Pandey won by a slim margin, perhaps hobbled by Sonpimple Rahul Punaram of Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association but clearly the latter’s appeal doesn’t extend to the rest of his group in JNUSU elections. Similarly, AISA’s nominee for joint-secretary --- Tabrez Khan --- faced stiff competition from Democratic Students’ Federation's Pratim Ghosal, while

Ankit Singh Sangwan

of ABVP won the DUSU secretary post by a margin of 683 votes, which is the lowest.

While former JNUSU president and AISA activist Sucheta De said: “It is a victory of the ideology,” Sangwan of ABVP after his win said: “Nationalism has been our main issue throughout the elections and we will work towards instilling of nationalism in the students.”