United Left Sweeps JNU Student Union Polls, Wins All 4 Posts

The United Left panel on Sunday effected a clean sweep in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) election, defeating its nearest rival the RSS-affiliated ABVP.

In the polls that happened after a hiatus of four years, Dhananjay from the All India Students’ Association (AISA) won the JNUSU president’s post by securing 2,598 votes against Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) Umesh C Ajmeera who secured 1,676 votes.

#WATCH | JNU students celebrate in the campus after the announcement of election results for the Student’s Union. pic.twitter.com/Kqjeldi1Z6

— ANI (@ANI) March 24, 2024

Dhananjay hails from Gaya, Bihar, and is the first Dalit president from the Left after Batti Lal Bairwa in 1996-97.

Amid cries of ”Lal Salaam” and “Jai Bhim”, the winning students were hailed by their supporters. Red, white and blue flags were waved by the students to celebrate the victory of the candidates. 

Avijit Ghosh from the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) trounced ABVP’s Deepika Sharma by 927 votes to win the vice-president’s post. Avijit Ghosh received 2,409 votes as against 1,482 votes by DeepiksSharma. Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) candidate Priyanshi Arya, who was supported by the Left, won the general secretary post by defeating ABVP’s Arjun Anand by 926 votes. Arya polled in 2,887 votes while Anand received 1961 votes. The United Left extended its support to Arya after the Election Committee cancelled the nomination of its candidate Swati Singh when her candidacy was challenged by the ABVP. The Left’s Mohammad Sajid won the joint secretary’s post by defeating the ABVP’s Govind Dangi by 508 votes. His was the lowest victory among all the four winners.

With the Left panel sweeping the polls, the JNU lived up to its reputation of being a Left bastion. The ABVP offered a neck-and-neck fight and was leading on all the four central panel posts in the initial trends.

The United Left panel comprises the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Students’ Federation (AISF).

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union polls on Friday witnessed a voter turnout of 73 per cent, highest in the last 12 years, according to a comparison from the previous years’ data.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)