New Delhi, Apr 28 (PTI): Left candidates bagged three of the four central panel posts in the JNUSU election to maintain their foothold in the university, while the RSS-affiliated ABVP ended a nine-year phase out of office to win the post of joint secretary.

According to the results announced by the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) election commission on Monday, Nitish Kumar of the All India Students' Association (AISA) secured 1,702 votes to win the post of president.

His closest competitor -- Shikha Swaraj of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) -- secured 1,430 votes while Students' Federation of India (SFI)-supported Tayabba Ahmed polled 918 votes.

Manisha of the Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) won the post of vice-president by securing 1,150 votes, ahead of the ABVP's Nittu Goutham who polled 1,116 votes.

The DSF also bagged the general secretary's post, with Munteha Fatima polling 1,520 votes, ahead of the ABVP's Kunal Rai who secured 1,406 votes.

The ABVP clinched the post of joint secretary, with Vaibhav Meena polling 1,518 votes, ahead of AISA's Naresh Kumar (1,433 votes) and Progressive Students' Association (PSA) candidate Nigam Kumari (1,256 votes).

Meena's win marked the first time the ABVP has bagged a central panel post since Saurabh Sharma's victory on the same post in 2015-16. The last time the ABVP won the post of president was in 2000-01 when Sandeep Mahapatra had emerged victorious.

ABVP National General Secretary Virendra Solanki said that a new dawn of nationalism has begun in JNU.

"Today, history has been created on the campus. The walls that were long held by the leftist ideology have now crumbled through the democratic decision of the students. ABVP has not only achieved victories in councillor posts but also established a strong presence in the Central Panel.

"This is a victory for every student who believes that education should be the foundation for nation-building. We will continue to fight for every student's rights and uphold the idea of nation first," Solanki said.

The ABVP also won 24 out of 44 councillor seats across various schools and special centres in the JNUSU elections, which means that the RSS-affiliated body will have a more say in passing resolutions in the Council.

This year's election saw a split in the Left alliance, with the AISA and the DSF contesting as one bloc, while the SFI and the All India Students' Federation (AISF) forming a coalition with the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) and the PSA.

The ABVP contested the election solo.

AISA raised its concern over the ABVP's narrow win and called it a challenge to the Left's dominance on campus.

"It is indeed a matter of concern that the ABVP has won the post of joint secretary with a margin of 85 votes. Despite this structural assault and corruption of the admission process to ensure BJP loyalists in faculty positions act as a ticket for the ruling regime on campus, the Left has returned to its leadership position in the JNUSU," the CPI-ML-backed group said in a statement.

It called the alliance's victory a mandate against the government's New Education Policy which, it said, undermined public-funded education and discriminated against marginalised groups.

In contrast, the ABVP called its victory "a historic shift in JNU's political landscape" and said it broke the Left's "so-called red fortress."

"This victory in JNU is not only proof of the ABVP's proactive hard work and students' faith and commitment to nationalist thinking but it is also a victory for all students who consider education as the foundation for nation-rebuilding. This is a democratic revolution against the so-called ideological tyranny established by the Left for years in JNU," the ABVP said in a statement.

Meena, the newly-elected joint secretary, said, "I am not at all considering this victory as my personal achievement or gain but it's a massive and fascinating victory of tribal consciousness and the nationalist ideology, which has been suppressed by the Left for years."

"This success is an embodiment of students who want to advance in education by wholeheartedly upholding cultural identity and the spirit of nation re-building," he added.

Meena hails from Karauli, Rajasthan, and comes from a tribal farming family.

He completed his graduation from University of Rajasthan and post-graduation in Hindi Literature from Banaras Hindu University. At present, he is a research scholar in Hindi Literature at the Centre of Indian Languages, School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies at JNU.

The polls, held on April 25, witnessed about 5,500 of the 7,906 eligible students casting their votes.

While the turnout was slightly lower than the 73 per cent recorded in 2023, it was among the highest since 2012.

Twenty-nine candidates were in the fray for the four central panel posts and 200 for the 44 councillor seats.

In the March 2024 polls, held after a four-year gap following the outbreak of Covid, the United Left won three of the four central panel posts, while BAPSA -- which contested independently -- secured one.

An ABVP student activist told PTI, "This is the first time that a single student organisation has won more than half of the councillor posts. ABVP has become the first to do so. Now, every decision which will be taken by the Central Panel will need a nod from ABVP, as councillors vote on any resolution."

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New Delhi(PTI): Trinamool Congress MP Saket Gokhale on Monday said 1.26 crore voters have been "deleted" from Bihar's electoral rolls following the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise and challenged the government to a debate on the issue in Parliament.

Sharing the Election Commission's SIR data in a post on X, Gokhale said the poll panel "conveniently" did not share any information regarding its claim of having found foreign nationals in Bihar.

As the month-long first phase of the SIR has concluded, the EC on Sunday said that enumeration forms from 7.24 crore or 91.69 per cent of voters of the state have been received.

It also said 36 lakh people were found to have either permanently shifted from their previous addresses or were not found. It pointed out that seven lakh Bihar voters were found to have enrolled themselves at multiple places.

"ECI has deleted 1.26 crore voters in Bihar from the 2024 Lok Sabha voter list overnight," Gokhale, the TMC Rajya Sabha MP, said on X.

Calling the details revealed by the EC "bizarre", Gokhale pointed out that of a total of 7.90 crore voters, forms have been collected from only 91.69 per cent -- 7.24 crore voters.

"This means that forms were not collected from 65 lakh voters, and they will be deleted. About 22 lakh voters (2.83 per cent) have been deleted because they're claimed to be deceased, about 36 lakh voters (4.59 per cent) have been deleted because they're claimed to be untraceable, and about 7 lakh voters (0.89 per cent) claimed to be found as duplicate entries so half i.e. 3.5 lakh entries deleted," he said.

"ECI has conveniently not disclosed how many voters were found to be non-citizens of India. This is important because ECI had claimed that the SIR was being done to 'remove illegal immigrants'," Gokhale said.

EC sources had earlier said their field-level functionaries found "a large number of people" from Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar during house-to-house visits made for the ongoing intensive review of the voters' list in Bihar.

Gokhale further said the names "deleted" were on the voters' list in the last Lok Sabha polls.

"A total of 1.26 crore voters in Bihar, whose names were on the Lok Sabha 2024 voter list just one year ago, have been deleted from the new voter list," he said.

"To give you a comparable idea, the number of deleted voters in Bihar during the current SIR is equal to the entire combined population of Uttarakhand plus Himachal Pradesh or the entire combined population of all 6 states of the North-East (excluding Assam)," he said.

He said EC needed to answer some questions "urgently".

"The voter list was revised by ECI before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. How on earth did 1.26 crore voters become ineligible in just one year?" he said.

"How many voters has the ECI been unable to reach for collecting their forms? Under the rules of SIR, those whose forms were not collected will be deleted. Therefore, what is the total number of voters whose names have been deleted only because their forms were not collected?" he questioned.

He said the EC has not collected documents along with the forms from all 7.24 crore voters.

"Does this mean that more voters will be deleted if their documents have not been collected with their forms?"

He reiterated West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's statement that the SIR exercise "is NRC by the back door".

"ECI had claimed 'removing foreigners from the voter list' as one of the reasons for conducting this SIR. Why has the ECI not disclosed how many actual 'foreigners' were found and deleted from the voter list during this SIR?" he said.

"It makes zero sense that 12 million people in Bihar have become 'ineligible' voters in just one year between the 2024 Lok Sabha elections till date... When 12 million people in a single state lose the right to vote overnight, it is a serious issue," he said.

He added that the opposition MPs have been pressing for a debate on the issue.

"Why is the Modi Govt so scared to have an open discussion on this in Parliament?" he added.

Meanwhile, the EC has asserted that no names will be deleted from draft rolls without following due process.