JNU polls: Left Unity sweeps all four seats, ABVP puts up dismal performance

Till the time this piece went to press, the Left-Unity candidates were leading in all the four seats of the central panel, leaving behind ABVP candidates in the last position. The final results were expected late on Saturday night. 

The last leg of counting of around 5000 votes saw Mohit K Pandey of All India Students’ Association and Students’ Federation of India (AISA-SFI) emerging as winner. AISA-SFI contested the polls in alliance with Left Unity. Mohit secured 1,815 votes out of 5,200 votes, while Rahul Sonpimple of Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) finished at 1,488 votes in a close contest.

ABVP’s Jahnawi Ojha finished third with 1,017 votes in her kitty. NSUI’s Sunny Dhiman put a poor performance with a dismal 137 votes cast in his favour. Dileep Kumar of Students’ Front for Swaraj (backed by Yogendra Yadav’s Swaraj Abhiyan) got 226 votes while 130 were NOTA.

Left Unity alliance has also trounced the AVBP in the election for the councillors’ posts in various schools of the varsity.  

The Left Unity secured a whopping 14 out of 15 seats till last reports came in. Surprisingly, ABVP also lost in its traditional strong-hold  — School of Languages. Only consolation for ABVP came from the Sanskrit centre where it grabbed all the posts. 

Registering a voting percentage of around 60 per cent, the highest in three years, nearly 5,200 votes were cast in these keenly watched polls after the Kanhaiya Kumar controversy that brought the varsity into spotlight.

After being embroiled in controversy, when then-JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar allegedly raised anti-India slogans during a programme organised to honour Afzal Guru as a martyr, students’ body election for this year were keenly watched and assumed new found significance.