Left unity sweeps JNU Students' Union polls, defeats RSS-backed ABVP
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New Delhi (PTI): The Left Unity on Thursday retained its stronghold in the Jawaharlal Nehru University here, scoring a clean sweep by winning all four central panel posts in the students' union elections, the election committee said.
Just a year after the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) broke a decade-long dry spell by securing the joint secretary's post in the previous JNUSU polls, the Left alliance 'comprising the All India Students' Association (AISA), Students' Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) 'bounced back emphatically in the 2025'-26 election, reaffirming its long-standing dominance on the campus.
Aditi Mishra from AISA, contesting as the United Left's presidential candidate, defeated RSS-backed ABVP's Vikas Patel by a margin of 449 votes, polling 1,937 votes against Patel's 1,488.
Mishra, who hails from Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh, is a PhD scholar at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory, School of International Studies (SIS). Her research focuses on "Gendered violence and the ways women of Uttar Pradesh have been mounting resistance since 2012."
Known for her activism on gender justice, she said the results were a mandate "against hooliganism, Islamophobia, casteism, and misogyny" and "in favour of quality and low-cost education."
Kizhakoot Gopika Babu from SFI bagged the vice-president's post after defeating ABVP's Tanya Kumari by 1,314 votes. Gopika secured 3,101 votes.
A PhD student at the Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, School of Social Sciences, she joined JNU in 2022 after completing her master's in Sociology from Miranda House, Delhi University.
She was actively involved in campaigns to reopen Barak Hostel and to conduct the JNUSU elections after they had been stalled.
Sunil Yadav of DSF and Danish Ali of AISA won the general secretary and joint secretary posts, respectively, after defeating their right-wing rivals Rajeshwar Kant Dubey and Anuj. Yadav secured 2,005 votes against Dubey's 1,901, while Ali won by a margin of 286 votes.
Yadav, a first-generation graduate from Bedipur village in Uttar Pradesh's Basti district, is a PhD scholar from SIS.
Ali, a first-year PhD student from the School of Social Sciences, hails from Bandarbarru village in Madhya Pradesh's Narsinghpur district.
This year, around 9,043 students were eligible to vote. The polls recorded a 67 per cent turnout, slightly lower than the previous election's 70 per cent. The campus saw vibrant participation with students queuing up outside hostels and schools amid chants, drumbeats and campaign songs.
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South African police arrest suspect in mass shooting that killed 12, including 3 children
Johannesburg (AP): A 32-year-old suspect has been arrested in connection with a mass shooting which claimed the lives of 12 people including three children at an unlicensed pub earlier this month, South African police said on Monday.
The man is suspected of being one of the three people who opened fire on patrons in a pub at Saulsville township, west of South Africa's capital Pretoria, killing 12 people including three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
At least 13 people were also injured during the attack, whose motive remains unknown.
According to the police, the suspect was arrested on Sunday while traveling to Botlokwa in Limpopo province, more than 340 km from where the mass shooting took place on Dec 6.
An unlicensed firearm believed to have been used during the attack was recovered from the suspect's vehicle.
“The 32-year-old suspect was intercepted by Limpopo Tracking Team on the R101 Road in Westenburg precinct. During the arrest, the team recovered an unlicensed firearm, a hand gun, believed to have been used in the commission of the multiple murders. The firearm will be taken to the Forensic Science Laboratory for ballistic analysis,” police said in statement.
The suspect was arrested on the same day that another mass shooting at a pub took place in the Bekkersdal township, west of Johannesburg, in which nine people were killed and 10 wounded when unknown gunmen opened fire on patrons.
Police have since launched a search for the suspects.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, according to authorities.
According to police, mass shootings at unlicensed bars are becoming a serious problem. Police shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
