The students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Delhi University (DU) vote to elect their representatives for the students unions on Friday. Currently, voting is underway in the two politically charged campuses and the nerve centres of student politics in Delhi.
The JNU elections are the most closely watched one after the February 9, sedition incident in the campus. In an event to discuss the hanging of Afzal Guru, alleged anti national slogans were raised that led to the arrest of outgoing JNU Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Kanhaiya Kumar and two others.
In the Delhi University, the voting for DUSU will take place in two phases across 117 booths. Around 1,23,241 voters will be voting in 51 colleges to select the president, vice-president, secretary and general secretary of DUSU. Also about 9,000 students will be voting in JNU to elect its student union representatives.
The fight in DU, it is between the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of BJP, the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of Congress, and the All India Students Association (AISA), the youth wing of the Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML). ABVP has been winning the DUSU polls for the past three years, so this time their slogan is ‘ABVP Once More’. NSUI and AISA are going with ‘Vote for Change’. Hostel accommodation and university buses are the main issues that will determine the course of elections in DU.
The elections in JNU have taken an interesting turn after the All India Students Federation (AISF) refused to enter the fray this year, the two other major Left parties-Students Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students Association (AISA)- agreed upon a strategy to fight the elections jointly, in that neither of the parties will field its candidate for a post if there’s already one fielded by the other. At the presidential debate in JNU, the candidates were seen raising issues like Rohith Vemula, Cow vigilantism and sedition row.
Important Dates JNU
Elections: September 9
Counting: September 9-12
Result announcement: September 12
Fighters: Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), alliance of All India Students Association (AISA)-Students Federation of India (SFI), National Students Association of India (NSUI) and Students Front for Swaraj (SFS), Democratic Students Federation (DSF).
Total voters: 9,000 approximately.
Important Dates DU
Elections: September 9
Results (tentative): September 10
Fighters: Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), All India Students Association (AISA) and National Students Union of India (NSUI).
Total voters: 1,23,241 approximately.
