Jawaharlal Nehru University to hold students' union elections today: Left-backed AISA, 3 other parties to fight as United-Left alliance

New Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) students will vote on Friday in the students’ union polls, which will test the electoral fortunes of eight candidates eyeing the top post in the politically-active campus. All arrangements have been made by the election authorities for the Jawaharlal Nehru Students’ Union (JNUSU) polls, which are being closely watched in the aftermath of various controversies which rocked varsities across the country in the recent past. [caption id=“attachment_4353179” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of the JNU campus.[/caption] The Left-backed All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students Federation of India (SFI), Democratic Students Federation (DSF) and All India Students Federation (AISF) have come together to form the United-Left alliance. The alliance has fielded N Sai Balaji of the School of International Studies as its presidential candidate. DSF’s Sarika Chaudhary will be contesting for the post of vice-president, SFI’s Aejaz Ahmad Rather will be contesting for the post of general secretary and ASIF’s Amutha Jayadeep will be contesting for the joint secretary’s position. All three of them are from the School of Social Sciences. The Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has fielded Vikas Yadav of the School of International Studies for the president’s post. Lijy K Babu of the School of Life Sciences will be contesting for the post of vice president. Md Mofizul Alam will be contesting for the post of secretary, while Ngurang Reena of the School of International Studies will be contesting for the post of joint secretary. The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has fielded Lalit Pandey for the president’s post, Geetashri Boruah for the vice-president’s post, Ganesh Gurjar for the post of general secretary and Venkat Choubey for joint secretary’s post. Besides the routine campaigning, the candidates in JNU are also supposed to participate in the presidential debate and answer questions that follow. The event, a sought after affair, was held on Wednesday night on the lines of the US Presidential debate and will be a deciding factor for the union elections.