JNU Students Union polls: Left leads in 3 posts, ABVP and NSUI far behind

Voting for JNUSU was held on Friday. Approximately 9,000 students voted to select the president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary of their union.

The AISA-SFI combine on Saturday evening led in three of the four posts in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) election, with the final results expected late at night.

Students arrive to cast their votes for JNU Students Union election, in New Delhi on Friday, September 9, 2016. (Vipin Kumar/HT PHOTO)

The Students Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Students Association (AISA) appeared set to bag the posts of president, vice-president and general secretary, informed sources said.

For the post of joint secretary, the Democratic Students Federation (DSF) was in the lead, with the AISA-SFI candidate in the second position.

The newly founded Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA) was at the second spot in the top three posts.

The BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Congress-backed National Students Union of India (NSUI) were far behind in all four posts, the sources said.

The SFI, affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), and the AISA, the student wing of the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML), formed an alliance to fight the elections.

Voting for JNUSU was held on Friday. Approximately 9,000 students voted to select the president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary of their union.

This was the first student election in the campus since the arrest of JNUSU President Kanhaiya Kumar -- of the CPI-backed All India Students Federation -- on charges of sedition after a group of students allegedly raised anti-India slogans at an event in February.