The Left and far-Left student unions retained the student bodies in Kolkata’s Jadavpur University polls, held after three years, but the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which formed a cell in JU last year and contested from all departments for the first time, surprised everybody by leaving the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) behind in engineering department.
SFI, the students arm of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), remained in control in the humanities department, while the far-Left students’ body, the Democratic Students’ Front, retained its domination over engineering students. The apolitical students front, We The Independent, emerged strong as before in the science department.
“This was our first fight in JU and the results make it evident that we are ahead of Trinamool in the arts department and ahead of SFI in the engineering department. We demand students’ union polls in all universities and colleges. We will emerge victorious,” said Saptarshi Sarkar, national secretary, ABVP.