AISA Sweeps JNUSU Elections Once Again Doubles Votes To Emerge As Significant Third Force in DUSU Elections

The All India Students’ Association (AISA) has swept the JNUSU elections once again this year, winning all the four office bearer posts. Ashutosh from the AISA won the post of President by polling 1386 votes and defeating the candidate from the Left and Progressive Front (LPF) by 377 votes. On the post of Vice President, AISA’s Anant Prakash Narayan polled 1366 votes and defeated the ABVP candidate by 610 votes. Chintu Kumari from AISA was elected General Secretary after she polled 1605 votes and defeated the ABVP candidate by 814 votes. AISA’s Shafqat Hussain Butt is the newly elected Joint Secretary, who won after polling 1209 votes and defeating the LPF candidate by 240 votes.

“At a time when BJP, RSS and the ABVP are trying to convince us that the ‘acche din’ have arrived, AISA’s huge and clear mandate in the JNUSU elections is proof that the students of JNU have decisively rejected their communal fascist and pro-corporate agenda”, said Ashutosh, the newly elected JNUSU President. “This is a mandate for a JNUSU that defends the idea of a truly secular, democratic society. It is moreover a mandate for a JNUSU that fights for students’ academic and infrastructural needs, for a JNUSU that resists corporate takeover of higher education, that fights for workers’ rights on the campus and that joins all progressive voices of dissent against corporate land grab, violence against women, communal hate mongering, AFSPA and state repression”, he added.

DUSU

In the recently held DUSU elections too, AISA’s vote share has doubled. In a campus like DU where student politics was dominated by the NSUI and the ABVP, AISA has emerged as a strong contender, posing the strongest opposition to ABVP’s communal agenda and NSUI-ABVP’s pro-corporate politics. AISA increased its votes on all post in a big way, getting the support of a maximum of 12932 (on the post of Secretary) and lagging behind NSUI by just 2100-2600 votes on the post of Vice President, Secretary and Joint Secretary. It is the first time a Left student organization – or any student organization that does not enjoy the political backing, money- and muscle- of any of Delhi’s ruling parties – has achieved so much support and votes in the DUSU polls. The DUSU polls are all the more challenging because around 45 DUSU colleges are spread all over the city of Delhi, and the ABVP and NSUI openly violate the code of conduct and indulge in corrupt practices.

AISA won the support of DU students with its consistent campaign against the FYUP, and its struggles on the issues of transportation and affordable accommodation for the students, as well as its leading role in Delhi’s struggles against rape and corruption.

AISA’s assertion among the students of Delhi’s central universities is an important asset and source of support for democratic movements all over the country.