The student union elections at JNU saw a voter turnout of nearly 68 percent on Friday. The total number of votes polled at the JNUSU elections this year was 5762 but we will have to wait another two days to find out who will lead the Student Union for the new academic year.
The 2018 JNUSU polls also saw a voter turnout of a record 68 per cent — highest in the past five JNUSU elections. A total of 5,185 votes were cast in the election that saw N Sai Balaji emerge as the President of the Students' Union for the term.
N Sai Balaji won the president’s post defeating his opponent Lalit Pandey by 1179 votes. Balaji polled 2161 votes against Pandey’s 982 out of the total 5185 votes. The Congress’ students wing, National Students’ Union of India fell behind with just 402 votes to their name. Sarika Chaudhary (DSF) won the vice president’s post with 2692 votes, beating ABVP’s Geetasri Boruah by 1680 votes who had secured 1012 votes. Aejaz Ahmad Rather (SFI), another Left candidate, won the general secretary’s post ABVP rival defeating Ganesh Gurjar of the ABVP. Amutha Jayadeep’s (ASIF) victory over ABVP’s Venkat Choubey completed the United Left’s sweep of the elections.
This year though Aishe Ghosh, a member of Students' Federation of India (SFI), has been fielded by the Left unity, an alliance which comprises her outfit besides All India Students' Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) and All India Students' Federation (AISF). AISA's Satish Chandra Yadav is contesting the post of JNUSU general secretary in the Left Unity, and DSF's Saket Moon on VP and AISF's Mohammad Danish on JS posts.
From ABVP, Manish Jangid is the presidential candidate, Shruti Agnihotri the vice president candidate, Sabareesh PA is in fray for the post of general secretary, while Sumanta Kumar Sahu is contesting for the post of joint secretary. Jitendra Suna of BAPSA is the presidential candidate and Waseem RS is in contention for the post of general secretary.
Priyanka Bharti is in the fray from Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal for the president's post and Rishipal Yadav, who is visually challenged, is contesting for the post of vice president. NSUI's Prashant Kumar is in fray for the president's post.
Now we have to look forward to a nail biting weekend till the elected candidates are announced.
