6 months ago
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NEW DELHI
The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) field buzzed with drums, chants, and run songs connected Tuesday arsenic students turned retired successful ample numbers to elite their caller national leaders.
The assemblage recorded a 67% elector turnout successful the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections, somewhat little than the 68.3% registered successful the April polls earlier this year. Counting of votes began connected Tuesday nighttime and volition proceed connected Wednesday, with last results expected connected Thursday.
Twenty candidates are successful the fray for the 4 cardinal cardinal sheet posts – president, vice-president, wide secretary, and associated caput – portion 42 councillor seats are being contested crossed antithetic schools. Around 9,043 students were eligible to ballot this year. Voting took spot successful 2 batches, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2.30 p.m. to 5 p.m., but agelong queues kept the process going until astir 6 p.m.
Ideological battles
Unlike the erstwhile election, erstwhile the Left bloc had split, the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), All India Students’ Association (AISA), and Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) person travel unneurotic nether the banner of Left Unity to guarantee the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) “stays retired of the union”.
The ABVP has expressed assurance successful improving its tally, portion the Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) pitched itself arsenic an “alternative to the Left-Right binary” that dominates field politics. As witnessed successful the statesmanlike debate, students appeared mostly divided betwixt the Left and the ABVP. In a connection connected polling day, the Left Unity accused the ABVP of trying to “confuse and disagreement Left voters”.
Aishe Ghosh, erstwhile JNUSU president from SFI, alleged that the ABVP was “attempting to disagreement progressive voters by distributing chits with names of rival candidates”.
‘Red panic successful JNU’
The ABVP, successful turn, accused the Left of perpetuating “red panic successful JNU”. On the eve of polling, it posted connected societal media, “Communists successful JNU are nary antithetic from Naxals of Sukma, Dantewada oregon Gadchiroli.” A time earlier, the ABVP highlighted its accomplishment of mounting up a railway preservation antagonistic connected campus, a committedness from its erstwhile manifesto, claiming it believes successful “the authorities of action, not promises”.
Outgoing JNUSU president Nitish Kumar said, “I won’t accidental the ABVP volition lose, but the BJP volition due to the fact that ABVP acts arsenic a BJP cause connected this campus. We person defeated them for years, and we volition again.” The ABVP, however, maintained that it was headed for a “landslide victory”.
