Left parties sweep JNU students union polls

The Left Unity on Tuesday clinched all the four top posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) Students Union polls here. The results were declared late in the evening after the Delhi High Court permitted the varsity to declare the results.

After the counting that concluded late evening, Aishe Ghosh of the Students' Federation of India (SFI) was elected as President. She defeated Manish Jangid of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) by a margin of 1,175 votes.

The Left parties including All India Students' Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) and All India Students' Federation (AISF) contested the polls together.

A notification by the election panel said that the Left Unity of student organisations - AISA, SFI, AISF, DSF - have won all the four central panel posts - President, Vice President, Secretary, and Joint Secretary in the polls.

AISA's Satish Chandra Yadav emerged victorious for the post of General Secretary with 2,518 votes. DSF's Saket Moon secured the post of Vice President with 3,365 votes, while AISF's Mohd Danish emerged as the winner for the post of Joint Secretary securing 3295 votes.

The results were declared after the Delhi High Court allowed the JNU election committee to declare the results of the students union polls held on September 6. The court also allowed JNU to notify the poll result in accordance with the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations.

"JNU is permitted to notify the result in accordance with the recommendation of Lyngdoh Committee," said Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva while disposing a students' plea alleging that their nominations for the polls were illegally rejected for elections of councillor in Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU).

The announcement of the results of JNUSU was stayed by the High Court after petitions were filed by JNU students Anshuman Dubey and Amit Kumar Dwivedi.

Students of the university had cast their votes for a number of posts in the students' body on September 6.

One of the grievances raised by a petitioner was that the election commission of the university has reduced the number of councillor seats from 55 to 46.

He said that this was against recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee that enables each school or department to have representation in the student body.