Left appears set to retain its grip on JNU students’ union

NEW DELHI: The Left appears set to retain its grip on the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union. By late Saturday, Left Unity — the alliance of AISA, SFI and DSF — had managed a substantial lead in all the four central panel posts, elections to which were held on Friday.
Earlier predictions were that the elections would go down to the wire.
At the time of filing this report, and with just 500 or so votes yet to be counted, Left Unity’s Geeta Kumari was leading her closest rival, Shabana Ali of Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA), by 400 votes for the president’s post.The trend was strong enough for the Left alliance to start celebrating.
Outgoing JNUSU president and AISA member Mohit Pandey said, “Over the years, the university has faced attacks from both inside and outside. Students seem to have stood with us in our fight against divisive forces.” He said BAPSA indulged in negative politics, while the right-wing ABVP never found favour over fears that it had designs to control the university.
Left Unity candidate Duggirala Srikrishna had the biggest lead among the contestants for the four big posts. The general secretary nominee was ahead of BAPSA’s Karam Bidyanath by over 1,000 votes. Simone Zoya Khan of Left Unity was leading her closest vice-presidential rival, Subodh Kunwer of BAPSA, by over 700 votes. There was a similar trend in the fight for the joint secretary’s post, where Left Unity candidate Shubhansu Singh had left BAPSA’s Vinod Kumar trailing by over 700 votes.
The ballots for the post of councillors were tallied first. According to a preliminary report, which will be confirmed after the completion of the counting process, Left Unity won 13 contests of the 31 posts for councillors, ABVP won six, NSUI, two and one post went to BASO.
Anticipating a clear ultimate win for the alliance, Geeta Kumari, who belongs to the All India Students’ Association, said, “The trend shows that the JNU students voted intelligently. The results will be significant both for JNU and the country.”
While Left Unity comprised AISA, Students’ Federation of India and the Democratic Students’ Federation, its main rivals were Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA), which made a successful electoral debut last year and seemed to have done as well this year too. Another major left organisation, All India Students’ Federation, fought the polls without joining the alliance. While Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India too contested, the debutant was the Bhagat Singh Ambedkar Students Organisation (BASO), which won one councillor’s seat.
For a major part of the day, till the votes in the School of Social Sciences and School of Languages were taken up, the contest was neck and neck between Kumari and ABVP’s Nidhi Tripathi. The saffron party ran a close second in the other posts too. The trend changed, however, and Kumari and her Left Unity fellow nominees began forging ahead.
Vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar said that the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations were strictly implemented during the polls. “JNU students are focused on academics and are goal-oriented while remaining socially aware. That is the reason why student union elections in JNU are always peaceful and environmental friendly,” said Kumar. “I congratulate the students on the successful conduct of the elections.”
In the end, if the trends are confirmed by the final tally, the formula that the left tried in 2016, when SFI, AISA and AISF fought the polls jointly, will have brought the leftists another easy victory.