AISA Retains Hold on JNU, Bags all Top Posts in a Multi-Cornered Election

NEW DELHI: Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University reposed their faith in the Left, and elected candidates of the All India Students Association to all the top four positions in the students union for the second consecutive year.

AISA defeated candidates of the BJP backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Congress supported National Students Union of India (NSUI), CPM’s Students Federation of India (SFI) and the Left Progressive Front that includes CPI’s student wing, the All India Students Federation. (AISF).

ABVP won the Delhi University student body elections and had carried out a fairly virulent campaign for the JNUSU although its candidates gave a good fight for the vice president and general secretary’s posts.

Ashutosh Kumar, elected JNUSU president secured 1,386 votes defeating his nearest rival LPF candidate Rahila Perween by 377 votes.

Anant Prakash, was elected Vice President defeating defeating ABVP’s Md. Jahidul Dewan.

AISA’s Chintu Kumari defeated ABVP’s Ashish Kumar Dhanotiya of ABVP by 814 votes to become JNUSU General Secretary.

Shafqat Hussain Butt was elected as the Joint Secretary after defeating Mulayam Singh of LPF by a margin of 240 votes.

“We have got a clear mandate. This is a response to the fascist forces in the country,” said Ashutosh Kumar, the new JNUSU President told reporters.

Significantly, the SFI has grown to gain credibility in the campus after being decimated two years ago when the entire student wing of the CPM in JNU quit in protest against the party’s reported inability to take remedial action for its defeat in the West Bengal Assembly elections. After the initial shock, the CPM reconstituted the SFI that has now proved itself by bagging nine of the Councillor seats in what many in the campus see as a breakthrough for the fledgling group. Interestingly the rebel SFI has been decimated in these polls.

As the results came out today, students gathered outside the School of International Studies (SIS) and chants of ‘Lal Salaam’ and ‘Naxalbari’ rent the air. AISA has been very active amongst the students, and in the city leading and joining in protests on democratic issues in particularly. The last students body had been very active under its leadership, being amongst the first to hold meetings on issues of rights and justice on and outside the campus.