United Left sweeps JNUSU polls, SFI's Aishe Ghosh president

The united front of Left student groups AISA, SFI, AISF, DSF won all the four central panel posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) polls, the election committee announced on Tuesday.

The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) came second on the posts of president, vice president, general secretary and joint secretary.

The front comprises the Students' Federation of India (SFI), the Democratic Students' Federation (DSF), the All India Students' Association (AISA) and the All India Students' Federation (AISF).

The Congress-affiliated National Student's Union of India (NSUI) fielded a candidate only for the post of president.

Slogans of 'Lal Salaam' and 'Inquilab Zindabad' rent the air as the results were announced.

The Left grouping's presidential candidate and SFI member Aishe Ghosh defeated Manish Jangid of the ABVP by bagging 2,313 votes. Jangid got 1,128 votes.

The DSF's Saket Moon was elected JNUSU vice president and he bagged 3,365 votes. He defeated ABVP's Shruti Agnihotri by 2,030 votes in the polls that saw a 67.9 per cent turnout on September 6.

Over 5,700 students cast their votes and the turnout is being billed as the highest in seven years.

Satish Chandra Yadav from the AISA was elected general secretary and he polled 2,518 votes to defeat Sabareesh PA, who got 1,355 votes.

Md Danish, who is a member of the AISF, was elected joint secretary with 3,295 votes and he defeated Sumanta Kumar Sahu who got 1,508 votes.

The 'United Left' alliance was formed before the 2018 students' union polls, and it has repeated its last year performance this year by winning all the central posts.

The Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) had fielded candidates for the president and general secretary posts, and stood third.

Its presidential candidate Jitendra Suna got 1,121 votes and Waseem RS, their general secretary candidate, received 1,232 votes.

The Chhatra RJD's presidential candidate Priyanka Bharti got 156 votes, while Raghavendra Mishra, an Independent candidate, contesting the post polled 53 votes.

Mishra is also known as 'Yogi of JNU' as he wears saffron robes like that of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath.

The NSUI's Prashant Kumar, who contested the president post, got 771 votes and stood fourth.

The results were announced after the Delhi High Court directed the election committee to do so. The court had restricted the varsity from notifying the results.