JNUSU results: Left Unity wins three posts, ABVP enters JNUSU after ten years with one

Celebrations by Left Unity and ABVP taking place simultaneously late Sunday night.
| Photo Credit: Special arrangement

The Left Unity panel won three seats in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union (JNUSU), while Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won one seat, after a gap of ten years. Through the night, JNU witnessed celebrations on both sides with red and saffron flags dotting the campus.

The post of President was won by the Left Unity’s Nitish Kumar, Vice-President post by Manisha, and General Secretary post by Munteha. This year, after a split with Students’ Federation of India (SFI), All India Students’ Association had allied with Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF). While Nitish Kumar is from AISA, Manisha and Muntaha are from DSF.

Vaibhav Meena from ABVP won the Joint Secretary post, making him the first in recent history to have won a central panel post. Meanwhile, ABVP said that it had won 24 councillor posts out of 42.

The last ABVP candidate to have won was Saurabh Sharma in 2015 who won the Joint Secretary post, marking its return to campus after 15 years. In 2000, ABVP’s Sandeep Mahapatra won the Presidential post.

This year, the United Left split into two blocks with Students’ Federation of India formed the Left-Ambedkarite panel with Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA), All India Students Federation (AISF) and Progressive Students Association (PSA), and All India Students’ Association (AISA) allying with Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF).

JNU has been a stronghold for the left with both All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) winning multiple Presidential terms. AISA and SFI have been fighting together since 2016 under the Left Unity alliance, with the aim of collectively combating RSS-affiliated ABVP.

This year, ABVP hoped to come to power as the split in the alliance presented them with a “good opportunity to hoist the tricolour in JNU”. Soon after the declaration of results ABVP said that it was unfurling the “saffron flag in JNU” and breaching the left’s “red fortress”.

ABVP’s Vaibhav Meena, from Rajasthan and hails from an ST community. He said, “I am not at all considering this victory as my personal achievement or gain but it’s a massive and fascinating victory of tribal consciousness and the nationalist ideology which has been suppressed by the left in the varsity for years.”

Earlier the three Left Unity candidates told The Hindu that if they came to power, they would work on issues such as rolling back the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, infrastructural issues such as the degrading situation in hostels, and academic issues such as campus recruitment.

The Left Unity said in a statement that while it has retained its victory, the elections are happening in the larger context of “structural changes in JNU”.

It added, “It is the need of the hour that all progressive organisations and forces on campus now resolve to come together to fight this formidable challenge of entrance of the ABVP in JNUSU.”