JNUSU Elections Begin After Four-Year Hiatus, Featuring Diverse Contenders

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) elections began on Friday following a four-year break, with over 7,700 registered voters expected to cast ballots.

The first wave of voting has begun and will run till 1:00 pm. The second part of the program will run from 2:30 pm to 5:00 pm.

The results will be announced on Sunday, and the counting will start at 9 p.m.

Voters can cast their ballots at any one of the 17 polling places that have been set up throughout various Centers of Studies.

A specific digital voting mechanism has been designed for visually impaired students.

Separate secret ballots are used for the polling of the JNUSU central panel office bearers and councillor candidates.

Eight candidates are fighting for the coveted position of president, while 19 are running for seats on the JNUSU central panel and 42 are running for school councillors.

The president, vice president, joint secretary, and general secretary make up the Central Panel.

Dhananjay has been nominated by the United Left, which is made up of the All India Students' Association (AISA), Democratic Students' Federation (DSF), Students' Federation of India (SFI), and the All India Students' Federation (AISF), for president, vice president, and joint secretary, respectively.

The Election Committee revoked Swati Singh's Left panel nomination for general secretary late last night after the ABVP objected to it.

Dhananjay, the Left's presidential candidate, is a Bihar native and could be the party's first Dalit president since Batti Lal Bairwa (1996–1967).

Arjun Anand for Secretary, Govind Daangi for Joint Secretary, Umesh Chandra Ajmeera for President, and Deepika Sharma for Vice President are the candidates put forth by the RSS-affiliated ABVP.

Ajmeera's experience as a victim of Naxalite attacks—in which he sadly lost both of his parents—serves as a strong argument for his candidacy.

Farheen Zaidi is vying for general secretary, while Junaid Raza is a candidate for president from the Congress's student organization, NSUI.

The BAPSA has Biswajit Minji running for president, MD Anas A running for vice president, Priyanshi Arya running for joint secretary, and Rupak Kumar Singh running for general secretary.

Minji, who comes from an Adivasi group in West Bengal, finds motivation in the hardships his parents faced as contract workers. If elected, he asserts that he will be the first Adivasi to run for president.

The sole female candidate for president of the Samajwadi Chatra Sabha, who hails from the Azamgarh district of Uttar Pradesh, hopes to challenge patriarchy and represent the voice of the oppressed on college campuses.

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