HVK Archives: Near-sweep by ABVP in JNU polls
Near-sweep by ABVP in JNU polls - The Hindustan Times
HT Correspondent
()
19 October 1996
Title : Near-sweep by ABVP in JNU polls
Author : HT Correspondent
Publication : The Hindustan Times
Date : October 19, 1996
The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU),
,which is considered to be the best preserved seat of the
leftists has turned saffron with the Akhil Bharatiya
Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) recording an impressive win in
the students' union elections, results of which were
declared today.
For the first time in the history or JNUSU elections, the
ABVP made impressive gains by winning three. important
posts with large a Though it lost the president's never-
theless the ABVP pulled off a coup of sorts.
Students Federation of India (SFI) candidate Battilal
Bairawa who bagged the president's Post scrapped through
merely by four votes. While Mr Bairawa secured 540
votes, ABVP candidate Pushkar Kumar Misra managed 536
votes and All-India Students Federation (AISF) candidate
Anil Mathew managed to get 433 votes.
There was a total change in the mood of the people.
While there was a lack of interest among the students in
yesterday's elections. It seemed that they suddenly woke
up to the idea that results would be out today.
Students were absolutely jubilant and excited over the
results. Supporters of the winning group could be seen
smeared with-different colours of gulal; drum beats from
different corners of the campus gave the feeling of a
festival time. The students' mood could be measured from
the bhangra which they did while walking along the pro-
cession which the ABVP took out. On the other side, the
SFI supporters took out a separate procession, while
shouting slogans such as communalism down.
The ABVP has not only managed to bag the posts of vice
president, general secretary and joint secretary, it has
also won 13 out of 23 seats-in the Central Council (CC).
The rest of the seats have been bagged by Free Thinkers
(two seats), SFI (4 seats), AISA and AISF (one seat each)
and two independents.
The post of the vice-president has been won by ABVP
candidate Govind Misra, who secured 610 votes. For the
same post, SFI candidate Ahmed Khan secured 396 votes and
independent candidate Krishna Kumar bagged 372 votes.
For the post of general secretary ABVP candidate Rashmi
Das has won by securing 617 votes. SFI candidate Aniket
Alam, who came second, could secure 551 voters only while
AISA candidate Kavita Krishnan bagged 465 votes.
Similarly, for the post of joint secretary, ABVP candida-
ture Jatin has won by securing 573 votes while SFI can-
didate Rupa Gupta secured 459 votes and AISA date Kumar
Dhananjoy bagged 262 votes.
The outcome of JNUSU elections has come as a surprise to
the people. It was back in 1991 when ABVP candidate
Badrika Mohapatra had won the post of joint secretary.
The BJP-backed ABVP supporters were of the opinion that
today's result showed a victory for nationalist forces.
They were of the view that the ABVP came to power because
there was a total disillusionment among the students
towards the leftists.
The CPI-ML-backed AISA supporters felt that the division
of votes led to the victory of the ABVP. there was a
division in the leftist ranks resulting from the split in
the powerful SFI-AISF combine, backed by the CPI and CPI-
M respectively. It is believed that the coming together
of the Janata Dal-backed Chhatra Janata Dal and the
Bahujan Samaj Party supported Bahujan Students Front has
also cut into the leftist vote bank.
However, the new president Mr Bairawa, said that the
victory has been of the SFI ideology.
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