AISA sweeps JNU students union polls

The All India Students' Association (AISA) has swept the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) elections, bagging all the four central panel seats by huge margins. The results of the election were declared Monday, after votes were counted for three days.

Akbar Chaudhary was elected the president, Anubhuti Agnes the vice president, Sandeep Saurav the general secretary and Sarfaraz Hamid the joint secretary. Chaudhary, studying for a doctorate in philosophy, polled 1,977 votes, defeating his Democratic Student's Federation (DSF) rival Ishan Anand by 1,327 votes.

Agnes, pursuing an M.Phil in history, got 1,966 votes, defeating her DSF rival, Zeeshan Ali, by 1,052 votes. Saurav, from the School of Languages, polled 1,657 votes, beating NSUI candidate Caroline Maninee by 953 votes. Hamid, a French masters student, polled 1,705 votes, defeating his DSF opponent Sonam Goyal by a small margin of 59 votes.

AISA also won 14 of the 26 councillors' seats. The major battle was between the AISA and the DSF, a breakaway from the Students Federation of India (SFI). Only Maninee of the National Students' Union of India could provide a close fight.

"The university students have recognised our efforts. In the last couple of months, we had taken up several student-related issues like the increase in the amount of scholarship from Rs.200 to Rs.500, along with mess and hostel accommodation issues. All this seems to have contributed to our colossal win," Chaudhary told IANS.

"Our initiative now is to make JNU a world-level research university. We will soon conduct a meeting with the administration," Agnes told IANS, congratulating all those who had won.

DSF leaders attributed their loss to the students being unaware of their ideology. "DSF being a new party, the students were not aware of the ideology of the party and this is what made the difference," said Ishan Anand, the candidate contesting for the president's post.

AISA candidates took out a rally on the campus after the results were declared to celebrate their victory. A total of 4,589 votes were polled in the elections.

IANS