BAPSA Makes Historic JNUSU Central Panel Win with Left Backing

For the first time in its existence, the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) was able to get a spot on the Jawaharlal Nehru University Student Union's (JNUSU) Central Panel.

In the student union elections, BAPSA's general secretary candidate Priyanshi Arya defeated Arjun Anand of the ABVP by a margin of 926 votes. Anand garnered 1,961 votes, compared to 2,887 for Arya.

When the JNUSU results were announced late on Sunday night, the United Left coalition won a landslide victory in three of the Central Panel's four seats, with BAPSA winning one of those seats.

Following a four-year break, elections were held, and Dhananjay of the All India Students' Association (AISA) defeated Umesh C. Ajmeera of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) with 2,598 votes to win the position of JNUSU president.

On the occasion of Birsa Munda's birth anniversary, on November 15, 2014, at Jawaharlal Nehru University, BAPSA was established as an Ambedkarite student organization.

BAPSA has not been able to win a seat in the JNUSU Central Panel, which is made up of the president, vice president, secretary, and joint secretary, since the elections first began.

Still, the group has been successful in getting counselor posts.

Even with a sizable voting base and an active participation in JNUSU events, BAPSA has hitherto found it difficult to win a seat on the central panel.

In the JNUSU elections, the students union received the third-highest number of votes, after the ABVP and the United Left Alliance.

The pivotal moment occurred when DSF President Swati Singh's candidacy to run for the United Left Alliance general secretary position was withdrawn in response to a grievance being filed with the Grievance Redressal Committee.

Afterwards, the Left alliance changed course and endorsed Priyanshi Arya, the BAPSA's nominee for general secretary. With resounding coalition support, Priyanshi Arya was able to achieve victory with this last-minute maneuver.

But after the election, BAPSA decided to break from the coalition and said that it will run for office on its own in the future.

In his media address, BAPSA official Pramod Sagar highlighted the organization's "long-standing presence and its independent voter base," noting previous examples of the group endorsing Left alliance candidates "without receiving reciprocal acknowledgment".

AISA, SFI, DFS, and AISF, four Left-leaning organizations, won handily in the most recent JNUSU elections of 2019.