JNU painted red in celebrations

New Delhi, September 16

Even before the results for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) polls were announced, celebrations had begun in the campus for the Left as red flags were being waved and red gulal thrown in the air.

A united front of Left student groups today won all four central panel posts in the JNUSU elections.

N Sai Balaji of the AISA  was elected as president.

Balaji bagged 2,161 votes. He defeated ABVP candidate Lalit Pandey, who garnered 982 votes, by a margin of 1,179 votes.

The Left-backed AISA, SFI, DSF and AISF came together to form the 'United Left' alliance. The 'United Left' candidate for the post of vice-president, Sarika Chaudhary of the DSF, garnered 2,692 votes and trounced ABVP candidate Geetasri Boruah by a margin of 1,680 votes. Boruah secured 1,012 votes.

Aejaj Ahmed of the SFI polled 2,423 votes and won the post of general secretary, by defeating Ganesh Gurjar (1,123 votes) of the ABVP by 1,300 votes.

AISF’s Amutha Jayadeep defeated ABVP's Venkat Choubey by 800 votes to win the post of joint secretary. Amutha bagged 2,047 votes as against Choubey's 1,247.

Balaji is a student of JNU's School of International Studies. Chaudhary, Ahmed and Amutha belong to the School of Social Sciences. A total of 1,148 votes were polled in NOTA for the central panel.

United Left's presidential candidate, vice-president candidate, general secretary candidate and joint secretary candidate, were sitting on the railing outside the counting centre, waving flags as they waited for the results.

The Left supporters, outnumbering those of other parties in the fray, danced with glee to the beats of dhol and dhapli. They chanted Lal Salaam and raised slogans demanding justice for Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula and finding student Najeeb Ahmed who went missing from the JNU campus.

With their faces smeared with red gulal, they also chanted 'ABVP murdabad'.

After the result, the cries grew louder and a victory march was taken from the School of International Studies to the famous Ganga Dhaba. — PTI