Samajwadi Party students' wing sweeps Allahabad University polls

ABVP's Nirbhay Kumar was elected as the General Secretary beating NSUI Arpit Singh by 61 votes

The Samajwadi Party's student wing won four of the five seats in the Allahabad University Students' Union elections on Sunday, a result which party chief Akhilesh Yadav termed as a victory of "socialist ideology and secularism".

The Samajwadi Chatra Sabha won the posts of president, vice president, joint secretary and cultural secretary in the varsity students' body. The ABVP, which is linked with the ruling BJP, could win only the general secretary's post.

Avinash Kumar Yadav of the Samajwadi Chatra Sabha was elected president of the union after he defeated nearest rival Mrityunjay Rao, an independent, by 552 votes.

For the vice president's post, Chandrasekhar Choudhary beat Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's (ABVP) Shivam Kumar Tiwari by 72 votes.

ABVP's Nirbhay Kumar was elected as the General Secretary beating National Students' Union of India's (NSUI) Arpit Singh by 61 votes.

Samajwadi Chatra Sabha's Bharat Singh and Avdesh Kumar Patel were elected as the joint secretary and cultural secretary respectively.

While Bharat Singh defeated independent candidate Adarsh Shukla by 630 votes, Avdesh Kumar Patel beat ABVP's Abhishek Kumar Awasti by 912 votes.

"I congratulate the newly elected office bearers. It's a victory of socialist ideology and secularism. It gives a message that the interests of students cannot be ignored. Due to the faulty policies of the BJP, there is resentment among the youth," SP chief Yadav said here.

SP spokesman Rajendra Chowdhury said that due to the welfare and developmental schemes launched by Yadav during his term as the chief minister, the youth consider him their "icon" and "will in future help SP in defeating communal forces like the BJP".

Newly-elected president of the students' union Avinash Kumar Yadav said, "This is the victory of all students of the university."

According to Allahabad University's chief proctor Professor Ram Sevak Dubey, in the voting which took place till yesterday noon, 9,181 ballots were cast. The university has around 19,900 students.