The student wing of the Samajwadi Party continues to be the leading force in the Allahabad University Students Union elections, results for which were declared in the early hours of Saturday.
The Samajwadi Chatra Sabha grabbed two seats, president and joint secretary. However, the National Students' Union of India of the Congress sprung a surprise clutching two seats, vice-president and cultural secretary, in what is its best performance in over a decade. The student wing of the RSS-BJP, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, were restricted to a single seat, general secretary, which it also won in 2017.
The counting of the polls turned controversial as the hostel in which the winning candidate for the president post Uday Prakash Yadav of the SCS is living was set on fire by miscreants. Senior Superintendent of Police Allahabad Nitin Tiwari said that six-seven rooms in the Holland hostel were set on fire and that all items inside Mr. Uday Prakash Yadav's room were gutted.
The room of last year's president Awanish Yadav, also of the SCS, was also gutted. His car was set on fire and several motorbikes were also gutted. Police is probing the case and an FIR will be registered.
Uday Prakash Yadav alleged that police laxity had led to the incident. "This is not an ordinary incident. But the police administration is silent because the BJP, known for its misuse of government machinery, has induced a cracking defeat," said Mr. Uday Yadav, who is a first-year law student from Deoria.
With an impressive tally of 3698 votes, Mr. Uday Yadav won the president post. The ABVP's Atendra Singh stood second with 2924. The SCS strategy of fielding, a Dalit name for the post of vice-presiden,t did not pay dividend as its candidate Munesh Kumar Saroj stood a distant fifth. The NSUI's Akhilesh Yadav won the post securing 2157 votes.
The ABVP won the post of general secretary for the second year in succession. Its nominee Shivam Singh, who secured 2823 votes, had a narrow win of 270 points over the SCS' Rahul Kumar Yadav 'Rudra.'
The Left parties continued to score blanks overall but Neelam Saroj of AISA had a decent performance as she stood third for general secretary post with a tally of 1959 votes. The SCS' Satyam Singh Sunny had a comfortable win for the post of joint secretary. The cultural secretary post was won by the NSUI's Aditya Singh.