PUSU polls: NSUI scripts history by winning key posts of president, gen secy

NSUI’s Shantanu Shekhar won the election for president post by a big margin of 1,496 votes, defeating his nearest rival Prince Kumar from the Chhatra JD(U)

For the first time in the history of Patna University Students’ Union (PUSU) elections, the National Students Union of India (NSUI) bagged both the crucial seats of president and general secretary.

NSUI’s Shantanu Shekhar (garlanded) after winning as the president of the Patna University Students’ Union (PUSU) (HT Photo)

The election results were announced late Saturday night. Last year, Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had bagged the president’s seat, defeating NSUI, but this year it was reversed for the first time in PUSU history.

NSUI’s Shantanu Shekhar won the election for president post by a big margin of 1,496 votes, defeating his nearest rival Prince Kumar from the Chhatra JD(U). There were 11 candidates in the fray. NSUI candidate, a post-graduate student of the department of statistics, was polled the highest 2,896 votes out of over 7,500 valid votes.

The NSUI had made a strong presence last time, with its candidates winning two seats for the first time after a very long period and had ended up runners up in the election for the posts of president and vice-president, and this time it bagged both the key posts to stamp its authority in an election marked by lowest voter turnout.

For the post of general secretary, NSUI’s Khushi Kumari got 2,164 seats to defeat her nearest rival RJD’s Pratyush Raj.

Bihar Congress president Rajesh Ram congratulated the NSUI candidates for their victories. “This is a reflection of growing popularity of the Congress among the youth and the reach of our student organisation,” he said.

The NSUI also posted through its official handle that the grand victory of the organisation’s candidates was a clear manifestation of “rejection of the politics of hatred” and endorsement of the Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi’s vision and belief that the country could move for ward only with love, harmony and constructive dialogue”.

In a first, the post of vice-president went to a woman. Independent candidates Sifat Faiz defeated Ayush Harsh of the JD(U) to bag the seat by 71 votes.

Out of the five central panel seats, two went to girls, while it was three last year. Last year independent candidates had won the posts of vice-president and general secretary in a keenly fought election, but this year there is just one independent in the central panel.

Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won the seats for joint secretary and treasurer. Its candidates Abhishek Kumar defeated NSUI’s Munawwar Azam by 422 vote for the joint secretary seat, while for the post of treasurer its candidate Harsh Vardhan defeated JD-U’s Abhishek Kumar by 170 seats.

Though ABVP and Chhatra JD(U) fought independently on all the five central panel seats this time, the latter could not win any seat. Last time, the JD(U) had not contested any seat.

In the 2022 election, Chhatra JD(U) backed candidates had won four of the five central panel seats -- first in the PU history. In 2018 also, the JD(U) had won the seat of president. The RJD and left candidates also drew a blank this time in the central panel. RJD has struggled to open its account since 2018.

A significant aspect of the elections was that it witnessed lowest voter turnout in the last four elections at just 37.8%. Last year also, it was the lowest at 45.25%, but this time there was a further steep decline of a round 8%, indicating the growing disinterest among youth towards election.

Magadh Mahila and BN College witnessed just 21% polling, while only the Patna Women’s College recorded the highest polling percentage of 53%, which is the usual case due to campus discipline. The Patna Law College (50%), Patna Science College (46%) and Patna College (31%) followed next.

Besides, there were 22 candidates won the seats for councillors for different faculties and colleges. Seven of them won uncontested as they were sole candidates.

Known as the cradle of politics, which blossomed during the students’ movement under Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan and went on to produce leaders like Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi, Ashwini Choubey, Ravishankar Prasad, Ram Jatan Sinha, Anil Sharma and many more, the PU elections always draw a lot of attention, though its relevance in mainstream politics has significantly diminished over the years due to lack of space for the youth on the bigger platform of state politics in the last three decades.

Purnea MP Pappu Yadav also congratulated the NSUI for winning both the seats of president and general secretary. “This is a result of the efforts to get justice for the NEET aspirant girl, who died under mysterious circumstances,” he added.