Dhananjay (goes by a single name) from the Left was elected president, defeating ABVP’s Umesh Chandra Ajmeera by 922 votes.
A coalition of Left student parties, the Left Unity, swept the student union elections at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), winning all four central panel seats on offer — president, vice president, general secretary, and joint secretary.
The JNU student union (JNUSU) elections were held on Friday but the results were declared on Sunday. These were the first student body elections held at the university since 2019, following a four-year break brought on by the pandemic.
For the elections, student organisations such as the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), and the All India Students’ Federation (AISF) formed a united Left front, facing off against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) student outfit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).
Other parties in the fray included the Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the Samajwadi Chatra Sangathan (SCS).
A total of 19 candidates were contesting for positions on the central panel of JNUSU, with eight candidates in the fray for the post of the president.
According to the results declared late on Sunday, Dhananjay (goes by a single name) from the Left was elected president, defeating ABVP’s Umesh Chandra Ajmeera by 922 votes; Avijit Ghosh (Left) defeated Deepika Sharma (ABVP) by 927 votes for the vice-president’s post; Priyanshi Arya (Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association, supported by the Left) defeated Arjun Anand (ABVP) by 926 votes for the general secretary’s post; while Mohammad Sajid (Left) defeated Govind Dangi (ABVP) by 508 votes for the joint secretary’s post.
Chairperson of the JNU election committee Shailendra Kumar said, “For the post of president, the names of the candidates are Dhananjay (Left) with 2598 votes, Umesh Chandra Ajmeera (ABVP) with 1676 votes…I declare Dhananjay (Left) elected.”
Kumar also announced the election of Ghosh, Arya, and Sajid.
A total of 42 councillors were also chosen through elections for the various schools of JNU.
Dhananjay, a PhD student from the School of Arts and Aesthetics who is originally from Gaya in Bihar, is now the first Dalit JNUSU president since Batti Lal Bairwa in 1996-97.
According to the final list of electorates released by the student election committee, a total of 7,751 voters were expected to cast their votes to elect the members of the central panel as well as the councillors for the various schools.