It was an acknowledged fact all these years that while the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) was a formidable force in Delhi University politics, they did not stand a chance against the red flags of the comrades in Jawaharlal Nehru University. Sunday, however, saw them bucking the trend as they came second in two positions in the central panel and also won 12 councillor seats in the schools.
“We have been going and appealing to students all year around, especially first year students who haven’t yet been gripped with the Left fever here. We managed to get around 900 new volunteers from the university to join us this year alone,” said Sourabh Kumar, the ABVP’s presidential candidate who managed to come third by a decent margin of just 65 votes against a Front that was formed by two popular Left associations on campus.
“In another year we will have a real shot at one of the central panel positions. Our vote share has increased 100 per cent, something that we didn’t think was possible last year,” said Sandip Singh, who has been in JNU and campaigning with the ABVP for some years now. He revealed that most of their members were from the Science Schools.
The activists from the ABVP were, however, quick to assert that the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the “Modi effect” were not the only reasons for their victory.
“Of course, students are reacting to the anti-national elements which the Left likes to talk about. But, we also offered the students a fresh new alternative. We did not go on about ideology and issues that were going on all around the world. Instead, we talked about issues that were concerning the students here like hostel issues, the lack of a proper placement cell and we gave them concrete plans of how we were going to help get these facilities,” he added.
