ABVP maintains lead in JNUSU Central Panel, wins 23 Councillor seats

NEW DELHI: RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) maintained its lead across all four central panel posts as counting continued on Sunday for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) elections 2024-25.

As of 1 PM today, around 2,475 votes had been counted, with ABVP candidates ahead for the posts of President, Vice-President, General Secretary, and Joint Secretary.

Polling for the JNUSU elections had concluded on Friday, with a voter turnout of approximately 70 per cent. Out of 7,906 eligible students, around 5,500 cast their votes, according to the JNU Election Committee.

In the race for President, ABVP’s Shikha Swaraj was leading with 756 votes, followed by Nitish Kumar of the AISA-DSF alliance with 579 votes.
For the post of Vice-President, ABVP’s Nittu Gautam was ahead with 710 votes.

Kunal Rai was leading for General Secretary with 832 votes, while Vaibhav Meena was in front for Joint Secretary with 823 votes.

In the councillor elections, ABVP has secured 23 out of 42 seats across various schools and special centres. These include two out of five seats each in the School of International Studies and the School of Social Sciences, one seat each in the School of Biotechnology, the Special Centre for Molecular Medicine, and the Special Centre for Nano Science, and two out of three seats in the School of Computer and System Sciences. ABVP also made a clean sweep by winning all four seats in the School of Engineering and three seats in the School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies.

Victories were also recorded in the Amalgamated Centre, the School of Environmental Sciences, the School of Physical Sciences, and the Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship.

Voting was conducted in two sessions across all schools and centres, including the School of International Studies and the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies.

This year’s election has seen a four-way contest, with AISA aligning with the Democratic Students’ Front (DSF) after splitting from its traditional ally SFI. ABVP and an NSUI-Fraternity alliance also fielded full panels, making the race highly competitive.

The elections, initially scheduled for April 18, were postponed following an incident of violence and vandalism on campus. After legal proceedings and administrative intervention, polling was rescheduled to April 25.

The counting of votes began on April 27 and is expected to conclude later in the evening. Final results for the central panel are awaited. (ANI)