Jadavpur University to hold polls on Wednesday: Will ABVP make a dent in Left bastion on debut?

On Monday, Suranjan Das, the Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University issued a note, asking the students to maintain peace and harmony in the university during the elections. The Students' Union election of the university is set to happen on Wednesday, February 19.

At this time, the left parties and the ABVP are both confident that they will win the polls. Incidentally, This is ABVP's first stint, fighting the JU polls. However, the members of the RSS-affiliated organisation are confident that they'll sweep the polls in all the seats. "There is no democracy in this university. The common students in this university are fed up with the left parties and TMC. They'll definitely vote for us," says Suman Das, ABVP JU unit's Secretary.

He also accused the other parties of threatening them and creating an atmosphere of fear inside the campus. "The left and the TMC don't let us distribute or stick posters. Our posters are often torn. They have resorted to namecalling and threatening the candidates. However, no one took any action against them," he alleges.

Rubbishing these claims, Afreen Begum, an SFI member and a student of the university, accuses the ABVP of doing the same. "We never tore any poster. We have no problem with the ABVP's posters too. But they have torn our posters and written ABVP on top of them," she says. "But we won't let them malice our university's peace. Nobody wants them here," she adds.

She also says that the elections in Jadavpur University were always peaceful and there were no violent incidents ever. "Elections are like festivals in Jadavpur University. We never had issues previously. We practise democracy here. Our main agenda is fighting against casteism that ABVP propagates," she adds.