New Delhi:
The "Left-Unity" alliance on Saturday swept all four seats in the JNU students union election, defeating the RSS' student wing ABVP with considerable margins.
The Left-affiliated groups have been locked in a battle with ABVP over dominance of their respective ideology on the campus in aftermath of the February 9 incident during which anti-national slogans were allegedly raised, leading to arrest of three students, including the outgoing JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar, in a sedition case.
Satapurta Chakrabaorty, the only girl in the newly elected panel, polled 2,424 votes, defeating Vijay Kumar by a margin of 1,094 votes for the post of General Secretary.
Amal PP won the Vice Presidential post with the highest margin of 1,304 votes, defeating Ravi Ranjan Choudhary.
Kanhaiya, who had an eventful tenure as the JNUSU president, congratulated his successor.
"The nation wants to know.." What happened to #ABVP in #JNUSUPolls? #ShutDownJNU became #ShutDownABVP(sic)," he tweeted.
"The nation wants to know.." What happened to #ABVP in #JNUSUPolls?#ShutDownJNU became #ShutDownABVP#RIPABVP pic.twitter.com/LG9e9B9bTO
— Kanhaiya Kumar (@kanhaiyajnusu) September 10, 2016
Several high profile BJP leaders including Shahnawaz Hussain and MP Mahesh Girri this year had tweeted asking students to elect ‘nationalists’ in this year’s elections.
I appeal to the students of JNU to support nationalists by voting for ABVP candidates in #JNUSU @ABVPVoice pic.twitter.com/OwEOsLioPK
— Shahnawaz Hussain (@ShahnawazBJP) September 8, 2016
As voting continues for Student Union elections in DU & JNU, I once again appeal all students to vote @ABVPVoice candidates.
— Maheish Girri (@MaheishGirri) September 9, 2016
This was the first election after massive protests rocked JNU campus on February 9.
In JNU, a total of 1,140 students exercised the None of The Above (NOTA) option. While in DUSU, more than 17,000 voters elections opted for the None of The Above (NOTA) option introduced for the first time this year.
"A significant number of 17,712 voters opted for NOTA, introduced in DUSU polls this year," said D S Rawat, Chief Election Commissioner for the polls.
RSS' student outfit ABVP continued its dominance in the DUSU polls, bagging three seats and describing the thumping victory as the "triumph of nationalism", while Congress' NSUI made a comeback, winning the post of Joint Secretary in the results announced.
ABVP's Amit Tanwar was elected the new president of Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU), defeating NSUI candidate Nikhil Yadav by a margin of 4,680 votes.
Priyanka and Ankit Singh of ABVP have been elected as vice president and secretary respectively.
NSUI candidate Mohit Garid won the contest for the Joint Secretary's post, preventing an ABVP hat-trick. The RSS' student body had bagged all the four seats in the DUSU polls last year as well as in 2014.
AAP's Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, which was defeated last year on its debut, did not contest the election this year.
