Left alliance bags 3 posts, ABVP stuns

Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) once again painted itself red this election season, but not without a strong flicker of saffron. In the results of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) elections for 2024-25, announced around 2 am on Monday, the Left alliance secured three of the four central panel posts, even as the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) made a notable comeback by clinching the post of Joint Secretary.

The Left-backed alliance of AISA and DSF maintained its dominance, with Nitish Kumar (AISA) elected as president, Manisha (DSF) as vice president, and Munteha Fatima (DSF) as general secretary. However, ABVP’s Vaibhav Meena broke a 10-year-long drought by winning the post of joint secretary — the same seat ABVP had last captured in 2015.

The last time the ABVP secured a post at JNU was in 2015, when Saurabh Sharma won the position of joint secretary, marking the organisation’s return to the campus after a gap of 15 years. Prior to that, in 2000, ABVP’s Sandeep Mahapatra had scripted a major victory by winning the post of president.

Throughout the counting process, ABVP candidates posed a formidable challenge, leading at several points in the race for all four top posts. Although the final margins were narrow in the contests for president, vice president and general secretary, the results indicated a shifting political landscape at JNU.

Significantly, the ABVP created history in the councillor elections by winning 24 out of 48 seats across 16 schools and special centres — marking its best performance since 1999.

In a significant shift this year, the United Left bloc at Jawaharlal Nehru University split into two distinct alliances. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) joined hands with the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), and the Progressive Students’ Association (PSA) to form a Left-Ambedkarite front. Meanwhile, the All India Students’ Association (AISA) allied with the Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) to contest the elections.

Jawaharlal Nehru University has historically remained a Left bastion, with AISA and SFI repeatedly winning the presidential post. Since 2016, the two groups had fought the polls together under the "Left Unity" platform, seeking to counter the rising influence of the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The ABVP’s claims of sweeping the councillor elections were contested by the Left alliance. In a statement on Monday, AISA-DSF accused ABVP of inflating its victory numbers by counting independent candidates as their own and pointed out that many of the seats won by ABVP came from schools with smaller student populations. "How is this a victory if the majority of their councillors come from schools that form not even 15 per cent of the JNU population?" the statement said.

Despite the sharp contest and differing narratives, the elections have clearly injected fresh energy into JNU's campus politics, setting the stage for an eventful academic year ahead.