Rajasthan: ABVP bags 7 president posts, NSUI draws a blank in student polls

JAIPUR: BJP's student wing Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) stormed the student union polls by winning the president post in seven state universities while its arch-rival, the National Students Union of India (NSUI), drew a blank as it failed to open its account in any of the 15 varsities where elections were held. Saturday's results also took both the main student bodies -ABVP and NSUI - by surprise as seven independents, mostly rebel candidates of both the organisations, emerged victorious in seven other varsities. One seat was bagged by the Student Federation of India.
ABVP candidates currently hold the fort in Mohan Lal Sukhadia University (Udaipur), Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati University (Ajmer), Maharaja Ganga Singh University (Bikaner), Maharaja Surajmal Brij University (Bharatpur), Guru Govind Tribal University (Banswara), Agriculture University (Kota) and MBM University (Jodhpur).
For both NSUI and ABVP, the major embarrassment was from Rajasthan University (RU) and Jai Narain Vyas University (JNVU) where independent candidate Nirmal Choudhary and SFI aspirant Arvind Singh Bhati emerged victorious. The defeat in RU and JNVU indirectly hit the ruling Congress and the BJP as some of their top leaders were involved in the polls. If Union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat appealed students to support ABVP candidates, Vaibhav Gehlot, the Rajasthan Cricket Association chairman and son of chief minister Ashok Gehlot, was actively behind the NSUI candidate.
The results also brought out the internal fight in both parties. RUSU president Nirmal Choudhary may have contested independently, but has the full support of Congress MLA Ladnun Mukesh Bhakar. Choudhary didn’t mince words is expressing his gratitude to Bhakar and Congress leader Sachin Pilot during his interviews to the media. “Pilot Sahab and Bhakar have shown how to work for the last man standing. I will follow their footsteps in politics to serve the people of Rajasthan,” said Choudhary. Interestingly, minister Murari Lal Meena’s daughter Niharika Jorwal, who had contested as an NSUI rebel, stood second while NSUI candidate Ritu Barala stood third in the race.
ABVP’s Narendra Yadav came fourth. ABVP’s poll plan was borrowed from BJP’s strategy of hitting the Congress government over unemployment, paperleak, shortage of teachers, scholarship issues and law and order. “The ABVP district leaders were briefed to highlight the Congress government’s failure to have better connect with voters,” Hushyar Singh Meena, national secretary, ABVP, said. TOI called NSUI state president Abhishek Choudhary and spokesperson Ramesh Bhati but received no response. Former CM Vasundhara Raje termed ABVP’s victory as an expression of people’s anger on Congress misrule in the state. She tweeted, “Seven presidents of ABVP have been elected in the student union elections. NSUI did not win a single presidential post. If you want, the state government should see the mirror.” The defeat has made the Congress camp silent. TOI called cabinet minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas for his comments, but in vain.po