JNU Elections: Left wins all key posts

September 16: The Left unity comprising of AISA, SFI, AISF, DSF has won all four key posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) polls. The Panel has won all four Central posts by a margin of 1179 votes on the post of President, 1579 on the post of Vice President, 1193 votes on the post of General Secretary and 757 votes on the post of Joint Secretary.

The Left group’s N Sai Balaji has been elected as the president, Sarika Chaudhary as the vice president, Aejaz Ahmed Rather as the general secretary and Amutha Jayadeep as the joint secretary. The presidential candidate of united left, N Sai Balaji won after bagging 2,161 votes. Sarika Choudhary bagged 2,692 votes and was elected the vice president. Aejaj Ahmed polled 2,423 votes and won the post of general secretary. Amutha was elected was elected the joint secretary with 2,047.

There was high drama on Saturday as counting was suspended for close to 14 hours after the ABVP staged protests claiming it was not informed about the start of the counting process. The counting, which was suspended at 4 am, resumed at 6.30 pm after two teachers from the Grievance Redressal Cell were appointed as observers for the exercise, officials said.

Counting of votes resumed Saturday evening after it was suspended for nearly 14 hours. Members of the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) claimed that counting had started without informing them. The voter turnout in the keenly contested JNUSU election on Friday was 67.8 per cent, believed to be the highest in six years. Over 5,000 students had cast their votes.

The Left Unity students also swept in most of the councillor posts in various schools, even in the sciences schools, which is considered ABVP stronghold. In School of Social Sciences, the United Left (SFI-AISF-AISA-DSF) swept all five councillor posts with massive margins, while in the School of International Studies the panels bagged four out of five posts. On Saturday, counting of votes was suspended for over 14 hours after ABVP members allegedly attempted to snatch away ballot boxes and resorted to vandalism and violence.