Over 5,600 students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) voted in the student body polls on Friday morning, amid an election buzz that gripped the campus after a hiatus of four years. Voting began at 10 a.m., after a delay of one hour.
While 7,751 students had registered as voters ahead of the election, only 73% of that number cast their vote. The results are expected to be declared on Sunday.
Meanwhile, seven hours before polling was scheduled to begin, the United Left Panel general secretary candidate Swati Singh received a notice from the Election Committee (EC) cancelling her nomination, days after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) wrote to the authorities regarding her “ineligibility due to proctorial fines”.
Ms. Singh had been rusticated from the university in 2023 for allegedly manhandling female security guards — a decision which had been overturned by the Delhi High Court last month.
“It has come to light that [Ms. Singh] has proctorial fines against her, and according to the rules of the Lyngdoh Committee, she cannot contest the elections,” ABVP JNU unit secretary Vikas Patel had said in his complaint filed on March 19.
EC chairperson Shailendra Kumar said that Ms. Singh had been disqualified by the Grievance Redressal Cell (GDC). “The EC had initially cleared her nomination, but when the [ABVP] complaint reached the GRC, it instructed the EC to take necessary action,” he said.
While Ms. Singh called the EC’s 2 a.m. notice “grossly unfair”, the United Left Panel was forced, at the last minute, to back Priyanshi Arya, a Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) candidate, saying that since they had little time to take stock of the developments, they had decided to ask for BAPSA’s support in order to “prevent ABVP from coming to power”.
BAPSA, however, issued a statement saying their candidates were contesting “independently”, adding that if any organisation was extending support to to their candidates, they were doing so “at their own discretion”. “We welcome such solidarity,” the student outfit added.
Four left parties contesting under the United Left Panel had earlier formed an alliance and nominated one candidate each for the four posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU). One of the constituent parties, the All India Students’ Association (AISA), said that they had asked their supporters to vote for the BAPSA candidate, Ms.Arya, in hopes of defeating the ABVP. “However, we still believe there should be re-elections for the post,” said AISA general secretary Prasenjeet Kumar.
The United Left Panel had swept the JNUSU elections the last time they were held in 2019, for the fourth year in a row. The student polls were delayed for four years thereafter due to the pandemic-induced lockdown, and later, the process of PhD admissions.
