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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T'gana BC panel seeks reports over infant's death, family alleges caste abuse
Hyderabad (PTI): The Telangana Commission for Backward Classes on Monday sought reports from state government officials on the death of an infant following alleged assault and caste abuse against her family members in Nagarkurnool district while visiting a temple fair.
In separate letters, Commission Chairman G Niranjan urged Endowments Department Commissioner S Harish and Nagarkurnool district Collector Badavath Santhosh to furnish the reports within three days.
Niranjan drew the officials' attention to media reports on the death of the two-month-old baby at Kummera village in the district and alleged caste discrimination and denial of entry to the temple fair to the baby's family belonging to a BC community.
BJP OBC Morcha's state unit president G Anand Goud alleged inadequate response by the police in the incident and demanded a transparent investigation into the incident.
Alleging that the deceased baby's father was attacked in the incident, he also demanded action against the attackers.
Goud told reporters that BJP's state unit president N Ramachander Rao would visit the village on February 24 and meet the baby's family members.
Meanwhile, a BRS delegation met DGP B Shivadhar Reddy and demanded a comprehensive inquiry into the incident.
The BRS leaders sought action against a person who allegedly attacked the infant's parents.
BC associations have held protests over the past few days regarding the alleged caste discrimination against the deceased infant's family members.
Police said on Sunday that four persons were arrested in connection with the cases registered after the family alleged that the baby died following an "assault" by a group of villagers. The family also alleged that they were abused in the name of caste in the incident on February 18.
However, a villager, part of the group, lodged a counter-complaint with the police the same day, alleging that he was attacked with stones during a scuffle with the family, sustaining a head injury, following which a case was registered.
The infant died on February 21 and her mother, who belongs to an SC community, also lodged a complaint alleging her daughter died due to the physical assault on the family by some villagers, police said.
