Published: 06th October 2017
After clampdown on protests, Hyderabad's EFLU votes in Right-leaning General Secretary leading to surprise from students and alumni
The student panel that had a severe right-leaning swept a key post and didn't lose the other posts by too much - leading to questions from the alumni
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The EFLU-SU elections which saw the highest voter turn out of 71.5 percent was fought by three student panels
Unlike in UoH, DU and JNU, now that the students' union election results are in, it is surprisingly evident that students of English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) have decided to go the 'right' way. The election saw Unity for Better EFLU (UBE), a student panel leaning towards right-wing ideology, winning the crucial post of general secretary — unlike SU elections in UOH and JNU where ABVP could not win a single seat. The General Secretary post was won by MA student Richa Sharma.
The EFLU-SU elections which saw the highest voter turn out of 71.5 percent was fought by three student panels including Students for Social Justice (SSJ), leaning towards the Ambedkarite and Communist ideology, an unnamed panel of three candidates who are found to be without any political party's backing and the UBE. It was a hard-fought battle for the two other panels against UBE. The President's post was won by Maitri Das, a candidate belonging to the unnamed panel, with a margin of 134 votes. SSJ candidate Akarshika V won the vice-president post by a margin of 26 votes. Joint Secretary Gokul S won by a margin of just 31 votes.
Right wing resurgence: Alumni shocked at the results
Some EFLU alumni are shocked at a right-wing leaning student panel winning key post and losing others with small margins as EFLU has been known for activism by students belonging to left wing and Dalit groups. The reason, according to them, is the crackdown on student activism on campus in the past few years by EFLU administration headed by former Vice-Chancellor Sunaina Singh — something that started with a 2014 notification banning student organisations with political affiliations.
This was followed by issuing a barrage of show cause notices to students for taking part in protests. Candidates with pending show cause notices against their name were not being allowed to appear for entrance exams. EFLU even stopped conducting entrance exam in Kerala in the wake of rising left-wing student activism on campus.
Students pointed out that UBE is the only panel that was silent about the fight for the removal of Annexure-V, a declaration to be signed by a student at the time of admission stating that he/she would not partake in protests.