Right after Holi, the JNU campus soaked itself in Red and Blue hues. Flags of winning student’s outfits fluttered on campus.
The anticipation
On Sunday, sloganeering was accompanied by dhol and dafli at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, as the counting for the student’s union election progressed.
At around 11:30 PM, the results were announced that the United Left Panel won three posts of the JNUSU, and BAPSA won one post. The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad lost all the posts by a few hundred votes.
Dhananjay as the first Dalit President in 27 years
Dhananjay, the United Left Panel candidate won the president’s post on Sunday by student body poll results. He is the first Dalit to have been declared the president in 27 years.
Dhananjay won by 2,598 votes and thanked the people who believed in him saying, “I’m overwhelmed at the support I have received. It has been made clear that the students are unhappy with the government and they want things to change.” Meanwhile, ABVP’s Umesh Chandra Ajmeera lost by a few hundred with a voting of 1,676 votes.
The United Left is comprised of the All India Student Association (AISA), the Student Federation of India (SFI), the Democratic Students Federation (DSF), and the All India Student Federation (AISF). One candidate has been fielded for each of the four posts by the left parties in the grouping.
Dhananjay from Gaya, Bihar is currently pursuing his PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies. Dhananjay has added to his speech that he will make the campus more inclusive, fight for the rights of PwD students and for better infrastructure, and hostels, as well as raise issues such as fee hikes.
Bringing GSCASH back
A Dalit woman, Priyanshi Arya won the general secretary post with 2,887 votes. Arya fielded with BAPSA said, “Among the issues that I hope to address are accessibility in infrastructure for students with disabilities, dropouts among SC, ST students, reduction of weightage in the viva voce, and bring the GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Against Sexual Harassment) back.”
Being a queer woman herself, Arya also demanded ‘they/them’ pronouns in official documents, and the construction of gender-neutral washrooms.
Avijit Ghosh & Mo Sajid
Avijit Ghosh from SFI won the vice-president role with 2,409 votes. He had earlier mentioned how he wanted the betterment of the campus by having a better hostel infrastructure, not having cramped-up academic buildings, having safety on campus, reduced enrollment of women in courses, and more.
Mo Sajid from AISF won the title of joint secretary with 2,674 votes.
Left Party’s stronghold on JNU
JNU has been under the stronghold of leftist parties for years now. ABVP was expecting it to change this year. There was a four-year hiatus before the elections of this year because of the pandemic and the PhD admissions. There were a lot of first-timers among the 5,600 people that voted this year.
