New Delhi: The long-standing United Left alliance at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has broken ahead of the students’ union elections, leading to ruckus during withdrawal of nominations and delaying the release of the final list of candidates.
Protests erupted on campus on Thursday evening after several student groups alleged that they were denied the opportunity to withdraw their nominations, resulting in the cancellation of their candidates.
The Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA), All India Students Federation (AISF) and Progressive Students Association (PSA) accused the Election Committee of procedural irregularities.
They claimed that despite reaching the venue before the deadline, their candidates were not allowed to withdraw their names due to mismanagement and disruption.
Students continued their protest, demanding an extension of the withdrawal window and questioning the credibility of the process.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) rejected the allegations.
The ABVP leaders said that the left-leaning groups were disorganised and could not finalise their candidates on time.
The ABVP said the withdrawal deadline had already been extended once and any further changes would be unfair.
“Left organisations failed to decide on their candidates and are now blaming others for their internal conflicts,” the ABVP said in a statement.
The split in the United Left alliance, which had dominated the JNU’s student politics since 2016, has dramatically changed the dynamics of this year’s election.
The AISA and the DSF have formed a separate alliance and announced their candidates, while the SFI, BAPSA, AISF and PSA tried to form a new front.
In a key development, the name of Gopika, who was expected to be the SFI’s presidential candidate, was missing from the list. Chaudhary Tayyaba Ahmed’s name instead appeared under the presidential category for the SFI, prompting it to term the list “erroneous”.
SFI’s Delhi president Suraj Elman said that several students, who were present in the queue before the deadline could not submit their withdrawal forms due to chaos outside the Election Office.
He demanded that the Election Committee rectify the final list and re-evaluate the nomination process to ensure fairness.
Meanwhile, the ABVP has announced its full panel of candidates — Shikha Swaraj for president, Nittu Goutham for vice-president, Kunal Rai for general secretary and Vaibhav Meena for joint secretary.
The AISA-DSF alliance has also declared its candidates — Nitish Kumar (AISA) for president, Manisha (DSF) for vice president, Munteha Fatima (DSF) for secretary and Naresh Kumar (AISA) for joint secretary.
A total of 7,906 students are registered to vote this year.
According to the data released by the Election Committee, 57 per cent of the registered voters are males and 43 per cent are females.
The tentative voter list was displayed on April 13 and the nominations were filed on April 15.
As per the election schedule, the presidential debate, one of the most anticipated events in the JNU election calendar, is slated for April 23.
Campaigning will end on April 24 and polling will take place on April 25 in two sessions — 9 am to 1 pm and 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.
Counting will begin the same night and results are expected by April 28.
Disclaimer: This is a syndicated feed. The article is not edited by the FPJ editorial team.
