A victory rally at JNU on Tuesday. (Express Photo: Tashi Tobgyal)The United Left Panel swept the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections for the fourth year in a row Tuesday. With Aishe Ghosh being elected president, JNU got its first Students’ Federation of India (SFI) president after 13 years.
Dhananjay Tripathi was the last JNUSU president from the organisation in 2006-07.
Of the total 5,728 votes, Ghosh got 2,313 votes. At the post of vice-president, Saket Moon from the Democratic Students’ Federation got 3,365 votes, more than 2.5 times the votes secured by ABVP’s Shruti Agnihotri, his competitor.
Satish Chandra Yadav from the All India Students’ Association (AISA) won the post of secretary by securing 2,518 votes. Similarly, All India Students’ Federation’s Mohd Danish won the post of joint secretary with 3,295 votes — more than double the votes secured by ABVP’s Sumanta Kumar Sahu.
ABVP emerged as the runner-up on all four posts.
SFI has maintained a stronghold in the JNUSU polls for several years. However, when JNUSU elections were restarted in 2012 following lifting of a ban by the Supreme Court, the All India Students’ Association (AISA) had emerged as the stronger Left force. Even since 2015, when AISA and SFI first formed an alliance, AISA always fought on the president’s post.
SFI’s Aishe Ghosh and Saket Moon celebrate after winning the JNUSU elections. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)Ghosh belongs to Durgapur in West Bengal and completed her graduation from Delhi University before joining JNU for her masters in International Relations. She is currently a second-year MPhil student of the same course.
The polls were held on September 6. The results were originally to be declared on September 8, but were stayed following pleas by two students — while one student had alleged that his nomination for the post of councillor in the JNU students’ union was illegally rejected, the other sought that the elections be held in accordance with the LCR to maintain transparency and control excess expenditure. Declaration of the final results were stayed by the HC due to petitions which were Tuesday disposed, and the Election Committee (EC) given permission to announce the results. The EC had withheld announcing around 700 final votes, but the leads had suggested a clean sweep for the Left.
SFI’s Aishe Ghosh and Saket Moon at JNU after the election results were announced. (Express photo by Tashi Tobgyal)“We knew what the result was going to be, but the HC order reasserts our politics, and the faith that students have in the Left. The declaration of this result is a win for students who voted for us…,” said Ghosh.
The vote share of Left and ABVP have gone up. While the Left managed to secure 50.15% of the voteshare — more than 5% higher than last year, the ABVP got 23.2% votes, up by 2% from last year.
Meanwhile, on the post of president, BAPSA’s Jitendra Suna got 1,121 votes and ABVP’s Manish Jangid got 1,128 votes.
