AISA ahead in JNU elections

NEW DELHI: With 17 councillor seats already in the bag and its candidates leading on three of the four central panel posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union elections, the position of All India Students’ Association appears to be practically unchanged from last year. AISA is still the top dog at JNU.
Yet, the contest this time seems to be more fraught with tension than usual.Displeasure over the process of counting led to violence - practically unheard-of in JNU student elections - late on Saturday night. A meeting with the election commission followed. While the door of the School of International Studies lost a glass pane, the counting had to be stopped. The counting resumed at 5.30am on Sunday.
“Even last year there was a complete sweep by AISA, but this is the first time we have doubts about the counting," says V Lenin Kumar, leader of Democratic Students’ Federation and former JNUSU president. “This year, there were two ballot boxes which didn’t have wax seals. Apparently they ran out of wax. Those boxes were sealed with glue." On Saturday night, they demanded a recount of SIS votes. Counting of central panel votes of School of Languages, Literature and Culture Studies - which has a very large student body - started on Sunday evening with private security personnel guarding what’s left of the SIS front door. Lenin himself went in to count. “I’ll make sure everything is done properly."
But DSF is not the only organization unhappy with this year’s elections. AISA members suspect a collusion between DSF and right wingers Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad because, they say, a large chunk of votes for the central panel post of joint secretary from the science schools have gone to DSF’s Sonam Goyal - who is also in the lead. They smell a rat as science schools are traditionally ABVP strongholds; the group didn’t field a candidate for JS.
Both groups accused of forming this secret nexus deny it vehemently. “There is no connect. We can’t ever go with any Left party," says Mamta Tripathi of ABVP which has won six councillor seats.
A DSF supporter dismissed the allegation saying, “There are only three contestants, so everybody has got more votes. Also there are over 300 blank votes." He added the candidate for one post getting votes is not usual - it happened last year also when Lenin won enough votes to become president but he was the only DSF-member to make it. “Any seat we get this year is a win for us. It will prove there is demand for an independent student movement," says Lenin. DSF’s got one councillor seat.
Akbar Chawdhary, Anubhuti Agnes Bara and Sandeep Saurav - all from AISA - are in the lead for the posts of president, vice president and general secretary. If they are pleased with things showing up for AISA in JNU, they are just as happy with the group’s performance in the Delhi University Students’ Union elections.
“AISA does well in JNU but its performance in DU is actually a bigger deal," says Chawdhary who, if he indeed makes president, will take up the issue of the Union Public Service Commission exams excluding Arabic and Persian. Bara says that JNUSU should take the fight against the imposition of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations back to the courts.