Left unions rout ABVP in JNU students union polls

The United Left alliance has retained all the four seats in the JNU students union election, defeating the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad with considerable margins. 

In a close fight, United Left candidate Geeta Kumari won the president's post by defeating Nidhi Tripathi of ABVP by 464 votes. Shabana Ali of BAPSA (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association) polled 935 votes, election panel officials said. 

Out of the total 4639 votes polled, 4620 were valid, and 19 votes were discarded after voters put their slips in the wrong ballot boxes, they said. 

For the vice president's post, AISA's Simone Zoya Khan got 1,876 votes out of a total 4,620 votes, defeating Durgesh Kumar of the ABVP who got 1028 votes.  

Duggirala Srikrisha (Left) won the general secretary's post by polling 2082 votes. He was followed by the ABVP's Nikunj Makwana with 975 votes. 

The post of joint secretary has gone to Shubhanshu Singh (Left) who got 1755 votes, while Pankaj Keshari of the ABVP got 920 votes. 

Geeta Kumari said, "The credit for the mandate goes to the students because people still believe that democratic spaces should be saved and right now, the only resistance is from students."  

She also promised to take up the Najeeb issue, JNU seat cuts, new hostels, and others. 

Duggirala said JNU has become more democratic. "We promise to reach out to students everyday and counter the aggressive policies of ABVP." He also vowed to defend the debate and dissent culture in JNU. 

In the central panel, a total of 1512 NOTA votes were polled for all the four posts. In all, 31 councillors have been elected for various posts, the election officials said. 

IMAGE: Students and teachers of Delhi University, JNU and Jamia stage a protest march against ABVP at in New Delhi on February 28, 2017. Photograph: Shahbaz Khan/PTI Photo