Jawaharlal Nehru University’s fiercely fought student union elections came to a close late Sunday, with the Left alliance of the All India Students’ Association and Democratic Students’ Front (AISA-DSF) bagging three of the four central panel positions. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won one post.
Nitish Kumar from AISA was declared President, Manisha from DSF was elected Vice-President, Munteha from DSF won the post of General Secretary, and Vaibhav Meena from ABVP was elected Joint Secretary.
For the first time in a decade, the ABVP made its way back into the central panel of JNUSU, which had consistently seen a Left union since 2016. This comes in the backdrop of the United Left — AISA and the Students’ Federation of India — going their own way in this year’s election.
AISA formed a panel with the DSF, while the SFI allied with the All India Students’ Federation (AISF), Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA), and Progressive Students’ Association (PSA).
Speaking to The Indian Express before the results were announced, Nitish Kumar said, “If I win, the first thing I will work on is pushing for more funding into JNU — there have been a lot of fund cuts over the past few years. I will work towards improving the university’s infrastructure. We will also work towards bringing back the JNUEE exam for admissions; push to eradicate the CPO manual, which imposes fines on students for dissent and protests; and push for women students to get single-seater accommodation in the second year.”
Referring to the rise of the ABVP on campus, he added, “The last time the ABVP entered the panel in 2015-16, JNU suffered an image of anti-nationalism. This time, we, as a union, will not let that happen.”
The ABVP, meanwhile, claimed a “historic” performance in the councillor elections — it said it had won 23 out of 42 councillor seats across JNU’s 16 schools and special centres. In a statement issued Sunday, the organisation said it had broken into the traditionally Left-dominated bastions of the School of Social Sciences and the School of International Studies — winning two out of five seats in each.
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“In the School of Social Sciences, considered a centre of Left influence in JNU, ABVP secured two seats for the first time in 25 years, signaling a historic shift,” the ABVP claimed.
On the results, ABVP JNU unit president Rajeshwar Kant Dubey said: “It is the result of our commitment to nationalism, academic excellence and student welfare. We shall continue to work with complete dedication to make the campus a centre of nation-building and student welfare.”
While the final JNUSU central panel results show the AISA-DSF combine winning three of the four key posts, the winning margins reveal a fiercely competitive battle with the ABVP.
AISA’s Nitish Kumar was elected President with 1,702 votes (21.5%), comfortably ahead of ABVP’s Shikha Swaraj, who secured 1,430 votes (18.1%), while SFI’s Tayyaba finished third with 918 votes (11.6%).
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The Vice-President contest was one of the closest: DSF’s Manisha won with 1,150 votes (14.5%), narrowly defeating ABVP’s Nittu, who got 1,116 votes (14.1%), a difference of just 34 votes.
For the General Secretary post, Munteha (DSF) secured 1,520 votes (19.2%), beating ABVP’s Kunal Rai, who polled 1,406 votes (17.8%), a gap of 114 votes. ABVP found success in the Joint Secretary race, where Vaibhav won with 1,518 votes (19.2%), surpassing the Left panel’s Naresh, who got 1,433 votes (18.1%), winning by 85 votes.
Although SFI had historically maintained a stronghold in JNU politics, the university’s electoral landscape shifted after 2012, when JNUSU elections resumed following a Supreme Court ruling. In the years since, AISA often emerged as the stronger Left force on campus.
The ABVP last held a central panel seat in 2015-16, when it grabbed the post of Joint Secretary by defeating the AISA candidate by a narrow margin of 28 votes.
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Since then, the United Left — comprising AISA, SFI, DSF, and AISF — had secured all four key posts in 2016 and maintained dominance in most years thereafter.
Polling for the four central posts was held on Friday. A total of 7,906 students were eligible to vote this year — 57% male and 43% female — with the voter turnout close to 70%, slightly lower than last year’s turnout of around 73%.
In 2024, Dhananjay, contesting from the United Left, had secured 2,598 votes, defeating ABVP’s Umesh Chandra Ajmeera by a margin of 922 votes. That election had also seen BAPSA make significant inroads, with one of its candidates elected to the central panel.