Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections were held on Friday after a four-year wait.
Polling for the first phase ended at 1 pm. The second phase was conducted from 2.30 pm to 5.30 pm, with over 7,700 registered electors casting their votes on a total of 17 polling booths set up across different centres in the university. The result will be declared on 24th March.
Students turned up in large numbers as candidates tried their level best to impress them.
The Samajwadi Yuvjan Sabha is contesting in JNU for the first time.
Aradhna Yadav, a research scholar in Hindi is contesting for the President’s post. Her presidential debate speech has been viral on social media for the last two days.
“The response is very good. We visited all the hostels for campaigning. Earlier students had only two options — Left and Right — but this time they have a third option too, which they were searching for, so they were also happy,” Aradhna told Patriot.
About the key issues in the election, Aradhna said, “Although there are many issues, my main focus is on women’s security. I am the sole woman candidate, so I will work for them, their equality besides working for PwD (People with Disability) and other problems.”
Mohd Shahzad, the national Vice President of the Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, came from Ghaziabad to co-ordinate, support and plan the election.
Apart from them, ABVP, BAPSA, and Left students wing were also raising slogans inside the campus. A very long queue had formed outside the departments.
Some female students in the queue spoke to Patriot regarding women’s safety, and hostel issues. Some science stream students raised the matter of fund cuts which is affecting the science department.
They also demanded rollback of GSCASH (Gender Sensitisation Committee against Sexual Harassment), set to deal with harassment issues, and also demanded rollback of the Rs 20,000 fine for protesting in the campus.
Aishe Ghosh, current president of JNUSU told Patriot, “We have faced many problems in the last four years. In the first year, we protested against fee hike in the university and we were successful in it.”
The current challenge is women’s safety.
“Women’s safety is the key issue, and we have raised it. The other issue is related to the hostels. We will solve the hostel crisis after being re-elected. We are sure the Left will return to power but challenges will increase.”
Visually impaired students were also seen protesting against comments made by a candidate.
“In presidential debates, a candidate made some anti-disability and derogatory remarks and that is not acceptable. So, we are protesting and have sent letters to the authority. We want to cast a vote but the election commission should condemn the statement. Only then we will cast our vote.”
