JNU sees a jump in voter turnout

NEW DELHI: The

voter turnout

for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union elections recorded a sharp rise this year. Against 58.6% last year, Friday’s polling was determined to have attracted 67.8% of the

voters

. This, with Delhi University also logging a bigger voter turnout, seems to indicate a certain seriousness building up in the universities ahead of next year’s general elections.


JNU had the highest voter

turnout

in six years on Friday despite the total student strength having gone down due to the cut in the number of seats available for research. The total enrolment in the university this year was 7,650 — less than the 8,055 of 2017. Of them, 5,185 chose to exercise their franchise.

The highest turnout was in the School of Sciences at 75.6%. The School of Languages was second with 69.6%, followed by the School of International Studies at 65.5% and the School of Social Sciences at 61.25%.

On voting day, party cadres gathered outside the voting centres to wean the support of the undecided student, and the candidates went from school to school to introduce themselves and put a face to the name on the ballot paper. Percussions of all shapes and sizes gave strong competition to the loud voices of the campaigners as they indulged in a final round of sloganeering during the two phases of voting.

While key contenders like BAPSA, Left Unity and ABVP kept the decibel levels high, NSUI too made itself heard. In a style reminiscent of DUSU elections, sheaves of pamphlets were tossed in the air by NSUI activists in a final outreach attempt.

Queuing up to cast their votes was important for the students. “This is right before the 2019 general elections, and we want to show the central government that we constitute a viable vote bank,” asserted Rishi Jain at the School of Social Sciences. “We cannot be taken lightly, the future depends on us too,” she added.

Her friend, Ojasvi Kataria, warned that the Centre’s current policies on higher education and its treatment of students were not going down well with them. “The government looks at us as a challenge when we are anything but that,” she said.

For most of the students, however, it was the candidate rather than national politics the decided their choice. “When we have to choose, we strike a balance,” revealed Jain. “We cannot focus completely on one and ignore the other.”

For Anjali Mathur, a first time voter, one issue similarly did not take precedence over the other. “As a student, I want the candidate to focus on campus issues like remedial classes, water supply and compulsory attendance,” she said. However, having freshly graduated from DU, she also gave thought to hooliganism and cadre conduct while voting.