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AFTER four long years of wait and struggle demanding elections, students of Jawaharlal Nehru University finally were able to elect their new student union on March 22, 2024, giving a thumping mandate to the United Left Panel consisting of SFI, AISA, DSF and AISF.

The very process of conducting elections was a site of struggle between the administration and their allies – the ABVP, and the student community at large.

On the one hand, the administration tried to stall the elections by arguing that they do not recognise the outgoing student union and constantly attempting to intervene in the student-run election process via the dean of students and later through the grievance redressal cell. On the other hand, the ABVP tried to disrupt the process through continuous misinformation campaigns, heckling and violence in the various university and school level general body meetings (GBMs) of students.

However, the robustness of students and organisations thwarted all such attempts. As a result the DoS was forced to announce the student-elected election committee, which in turn announced the polling day on March 22, 2024. In this election, the United Left, ABVP and BAPSA fielded candidates in all central panel posts. NSUI also fielded candidates for the post of president and general secretary, while student wings of RJD, and the Samajwadi Party fielded candidates for the post of president. The United Left fought the elections on the back of two key successful movements of the previous union – against fee hike and recommencement of the student union elections – and on issues such as reinstating the Gender Sensitization Committee against Sexual Harassment (GSCASH), addressing infrastructural issues such as renovation of hostels and labs, building of new hostels and academic buildings, hike in Merit-Cum-Means fellowship and intensifying the movement for reinstating scholarships for marginalised sections, such as the Maulana Azad National Fellowship.

The results of the elections for central panel posts are as follows:

It is worthwhile to note that the ABVP-admin nexus came out in the open when the administration, via the grievance redressal cell, intervened to cancel the nomination of Swati Singh, the general secretary candidate of the United Left Panel on trumped up charges. This was a gross violation of the JNUSU constitution which envisions no intervention from the administration in the student union elections. Even more worrying was the timing of the cancellation. To ensure that Swati could not approach the court before the commencement of polling, the notification of cancellation was announced at 2 am on the polling day. This was to ensure widespread confusion in the student community with the hope that this will allow the ABVP to register a victory in the post of general secretary.

However, the SFI and other Left organisations appealed to students to vote for the BAPSA candidate to foil the administration’s attempt to smuggle in an ABVP candidate in the union. The student community, in rage about the cancellation of a popular candidate and understanding the vile attempt of the Sanghi administration extended support to BAPSA candidate ensuring the defeat of ABVP. At the level of councilors, United Left and Left- backed independent candidates won 22 seats out of 42 seats, out of which SFI is the largest contingent.

The JNUSU elections, in which issues from electoral bonds to the ethnic violence in Manipur and the lost decade of the youth as far as the Modi government is concerned were discussed, has portrayed the anger of the student and youth. Students have rejected the RSS propaganda machine funded through vasooli bonds and rallied with a Left progressive alliance which maintained a live contact with the students, focussing on their day-to-day issues and is politically articulate to link them to policies followed by the governments.

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