The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) office on campus was buzzing with activity on Saturday after a gap of four years as the final list of candidates for the upcoming students’ union polls was released.
The university is set to hold the student body elections on March 22 and declare the results on March 24. The presidential debate is scheduled for March 20. The JNUSU polls have not been held on the campus since 2019 due to the pandemic. The elections were not held last year as the administration said it wanted the PhD admissions to be concluded first.
The president’s post received eight nominations, the post of the vice-president and the general secretary received four each, while eight candidates filed their nominations for the post of the joint secretary.
The left parties, fighting together under the banner of the United Left Alliance, fielded a candidate each from the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students Federation (DSF), and All India Students’ Federation (AISF) for the four JNUSU posts.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) fielded four candidates, while the Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) is contesting only for the posts of president and general secretary.
A total of 111 students are contesting for the positions of councillors, of which 33 are women. A total of 7,751 students were registered as voters, the election committee chairperson, Shailendra Kumar, said on Saturday.
Poll agendas
Dhananjay, the United Left Alliance’s presidential candidate, said his alliance would fight on the issues of the National Education Policy (NEP), infrastructural lacunae, in the university, and the “crackdown on dissent” on the campus.
Biswajeet, the presidential candidate of the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), said, “It is a trend that those from the marginalised sections get high marks in the written examination and low marks in the viva. We will address this issue as well as the issues of reservation policy in hostels and the low representation of women on the campus. Our aim is to have an inclusive campus.”
Overcrowding in classrooms and hostel infrastructure were some of the issues raised by many candidates. Deepika Sharma, the ABVP’s vice-presidential candidate, said she hopes to address issues such as women’s representation on the campus and the reinstatement of the Gender Sensitisation Committee Against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH).
