Left parties sweep JNU Students’ Union elections

The left parties retained all the four key posts of president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary, for the second year in a row.

New Delhi: The Left parties swept the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union elections, retaining all the four key posts of president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary, for the second year in a row.

Aditi Mishra of the Left Unity was elected as JNUSU president. Aditi defeated the ABVP's Vikas Patel by a margin of 414 votes.

Aditi secured 1,861 votes and Vikas polled 1,447 votes. The Left Unity was an alliance of the Left parties comprising the Students’ Federation of India, All India Students’ Association and Democratic Students’ Federation, and Aditi is from the AISA. 

Winning with the widest margin was Kizhakoot Gopika Babu from the Left Unity alliance, who clinched the Vice President's post with 2,966 votes, defeating ABVP’s Tanya Kumari with a massive margin of 1,236 votes.  

The tightest contest was for the position of General Secretary with the Left Unity’s Sunil Yadav securing 1,915 votes, defeating ABVP’s Rajeshwar Kant Dubey with a slim margin of 74 votes

The Joint Secretary's post went to Left Unity’s Danish Ali, who won with 1,991 votes, defeating ABVP’s Anuj Damara, who polled 1,762 votes.  

A total of 20 candidates were in the fray for the four central panel posts. The Congress’s student union -- National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) fared badly. 

The campaign season saw debates, campus campaigning and poster drives, and elections were held on issues such as hostel shortages, fee hikes, women’s safety, etc.

Left groups highlighted concerns over “privatisation of higher education” and campus autonomy, while the ABVP campaigned on themes of nationalism and development.

Some other issues that found resonance in the campus were the Palestine conflict in Gaza and the arrest of Ladakhi activist Sonam Wangchuk.