JNU student elections: Counting begins but no results, only trends
The Election Committee (EC) resumed counting of votes on Saturday after the process had to be put on hold for at least 12 hours due to a deadlock between students and grievance redressal cell (GRC).
Every year, during counting of ballots for the Jawaharlal Nehru University students’ union (JNUSU) , slogans would be heard and songs would be sung outside the counting venue. This year, however, the mood was different.
Outside the School of Language, Literature and Culture Studies, one of the counting venues, a tent set up for student activists bore an almost deserted look on Saturday afternoon. The few students on site heard the trends being announced over the public announcement system.
“The counting was stopped multiple times this time. Efforts are being made to stall the election process. Naturally, people are demoralised,” said Aishe Ghosh, the Left’s presidential candidate this year. “Things will pick up as soon as counting resumes and trends start pouring in.” Till Saturday evening, the varsity had shared trends from at least two schools
On Friday, while hearing two pleas filed by students —one seeking elections in accordance with the rules laid by the Lyngdoh Committee and the second challenging the rejection of nomination of a student for a councillor position— the Delhi High Court restrained the University from declaring the results and notifying the new student’s council till further orders of the court. The matter is posted for hearing on September 17.
The Election Committee (EC) resumed counting of votes on Saturday after the process had to be put on hold for at least 12 hours due to a deadlock between students and grievance redressal cell (GRC).
EC chairperson Shashank Patel said the GRC recommended that an undertaking be given by counting agents that they will not disclose the results.
Outgoing president N Sai Balaji said, “We will abide by the court’s orders. The last round of 150 votes for the central panel will not be declared. Since we have doubts over safety of ballot boxes, we want the counting to happen soon. Since the polling day, the administration has been interfering in the election process through GRC.”
On Friday, Dean of Students Umesh Kadam, who is also the GRC chairperson, had said that the university authorities had the power to intervene to ensure free and fair elections.
Balaji also said, “We suspect, as many students have told us and shared screenshots with us, that the petitioners engaged in collusive action to stall a democratic election procedure. One of the petitioners is the student representative in Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) and everybody knows only ABVP members fight ICC elections.”
Petitioner Anuj Kumar Dwivedi, the ICC representative, denied the allegations. “The notice for ICC elections does not mention that candidates should be affiliated to any student political outfit. I do not have any ties to ABVP,” he said.
The first year PhD student from the School of Computational And Integrative Sciences (SCIS) said he moved court to seek justice after his nomination was cancelled by the EC and he was not “satisfied” with the reason provided by them. EC said they had submitted the reason for his cancellation to the GRC.
“This is the fight for student representation in the union. If we are not able to fight for my individual justice, how can I fight for students’ justice? We need to save the EC from predatory left students’ union,” he said.
Dwivedi also said that the EC’s intentions are “fair for students”, but they are stopped from working due to pressure from the Left.
The other petitioner in the case could not be reached for comment.
Sujeet Sharma, vice president of JNU ABVP, said that neither petitioner is a member of the outfit.