Sloganeering accompanied with dafli and dhol, reached a crescendo on the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus as the counting for the students’ union election progressed on Sunday. As evening fell, the outcome became clearer.
Around 11.30 p.m, the election committee declared that the United Left panel won three posts of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), while the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) won one post. The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad lost all the posts by a few hundred votes.
The United Left comprises the All India Students’ Association (AISA), the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), the Democratic Students Federation (DSF), and the All India Students’ Federation (AISF). Each of the Left parties in the grouping had fielded one candidate each for the four posts.
Dhananjay of the AISA, who won the president’s post with a total of 2,598 votes, said, “I’m overwhelmed at the support I have received. It has been made clear that the students are unhappy with the government and they want things to change.” The ABVP’s Umesh Chandra Ajmeera came second with 1,676 votes.
Hailing from Bihar’s Gaya and currently pursuing his PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies, Dhananjay is the only Dalit candidate to have won the presidential post in the past two decades. He added that he will work to make the campus inclusive, fight for the rights of PwD students and for better infrastructure, hostels, as well as raise issues such as fee hikes.
Priyanshi Arya, a Dalit queer woman, originally from Uttarakhand’s Haldwani, won the general secretary post with a total of 2,887 votes. Arya, who was fielded by BAPSA, said, “Among the issues that I hope to address are accessibility in infrastructure for students with disabilities, dropouts among SC, ST students, reduction of weightage in the viva voce, and bring the GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Against Sexual Harassment) back.” Arya said the university should also take into account the demands of their queer collective, such as using ‘they/them’ pronouns in official documents, and construction of gender-neutral washrooms.
With a total of 2,409 votes, Avijit Ghosh from the SFI won the vice-president post. He had earlier said that he hoped to fight for issues such as hostel infrastructure, issues pertaining to the cramped up academic buildings, safety on campus, reduced enrolment of women in courses, among others. The joint secretary post was won by Mo Sajid from the AISF with 2,574 votes.
The Left candidate standing for the general secretary post, Swati Singh, was disqualified on Friday, the day polling took place.
While the Left encouraged students to vote for BAPSA, the latter maintained that its candidates were contesting individually and that Arya was expected to win, with or without endorsement. Earlier, the party said it was contesting individually and was not part of the Left alliance as it did not want students from marginalised communities on campus to serve as a “mere vote bank”.
The JNU has been a stronghold of the Left parties over the years. However, the ABVP was hoping to change that this year. The election was held after a four-year hiatus – initially due to the pandemic and later due to PhD admissions. Around 5,600 students voted this year, many of whom were first-time voters.
