Hyderabad varsity polls: Dalit-tribal-minority students’ coalition trounces ABVP

 Candidates of Alliance for Social Justice (ASJ) won all the posts in the students’ union elections of the University of Hyderabad trouncing the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The ASJ is a coalition of student groups owing allegiance to Left, Dalit, Adivasi and religious minority students’ organisations.

The elections were held on Friday and the results were declared late in the night. In all, three Dalits, two Muslims and one Adivasi candidates won the students union elections in the UoH, a Central university.

The elections were held at a time when the UoH hit the headlines following the suicide of research scholar Rohith Vemula last year, and the students were protesting against the Justice Roopanwal Commission report attributing his death to personal reasons and declaring him as a non-Dalit.

Sreerag Poickadan of Ambedkar Students Union, under the banner of ASJ, has been elected as the new president. He defeated his nearest rival Karan Palsania of the ABVP by a margin of 170 votes.

The ABVP is the student affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP.

Arif Ahammed from the Students’ Federation of India trounced his nearest rival Kiran Kumar of the ABVP by a margin of 409 votes for the post of general secretary. Muhammed Ashique of the Muslim Students’ Federation won the post of joint secretary by defeating ABVP candidate Rani by a margin of 281.

Representatives of Dalit Students Union won the posts of cultural and sports secretary by defeating the ABVP candidates.

For the post of vice-president, Lunavath Naresh from the Tribal Students’ Forum defeated ABVP candidate Apoorva by a margin of 261 votes. However, the results for this post were withheld by the election grievance committee as the winner had some attendance related issues.

The ASJ coalition included organisations such as Students Federation of India (SFI), Ambedkar Students Association (ASA), Dalit Students Union (DSU), Tribal Students Forum (TSF), Students Islamic Organisation (SIO), Muslim Students Federation (MSF) and Telangana Vidyarthi Vedika (TVV).