UNI
Indian Express
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TitlJNU elects ABVP union chief Author: UNI Publication: Indian Express DatNovember 19, 2000 NEW DELHI: The prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University, long considered a red bastion, has gone the saffron way this year with the BJP-affiliated ABVP bagging the coveted post of the JNU students union president, but the left party sympathisers say their vote base is intact. In a verdict that turned out to be historic for a number of reasons, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad's Sandeep Mahapatra won the race for the president by a wafer-thin majority of only one vote against Students Federation of India's Vijoo Krishnan last night. This is the first time that the ABVP, which has been making inroads into the JNU in recent years, has won the post of the president. Mr Krishnan, a joint candidate of the SFI and the All India Students Federation, won 955 votes while Mr Mahapatra bagged 956. While PHD scholar Nilanjana Singh of the school of social sciences, who campaigned for the ABVP candidate, said the verdict showed the students' desire for change, Prof Kamal Chenoy of the school of international studies disagrees. According to Mr Chenoy, the main reason for the defeat of the SFI-AISF candidate was the split in the SFI on the eve of the elections. Seventy SFI members, including the outgoing JNUSU president Nasir Hussein, parted ways with the group on the eve of the polls and backed the presidential nominee of the CPI (ML)-backed All India Students Union (AISA), who bagged 690 votes. ''The results show that taken together, the left parties won 60 per cent of the votes. This shows that their vote base is intact. The results should be an eye opener for the secular vote that any split in their ranks would benefit their rivals. Efforts should be made to bring back those who have left the SFI,'' he added. While the debate goes on in the sprawling JNU campus about the wafer-thin defeat of the SFI-AISF presidential candidate, there is no disputing the verdict. The Left party candidate has conceded defeat and observers fear no disturbance. ''JNU has a tradition of reconciliation and a mature polity built upon working with all sorts of combinations,'' said Prof B Viveknandan of the Centre for American and Euro Studies. While the ABVP's Makhan Saikia bagged the post of joint secretary, SFI's Albeena Shakeel is the new JNUSU vice-president and AISF's Mathi Anand is general secretary. UNI ---------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.ofbjp.org ---------------------------------------------------------------------- A worldwide community of BJP's friends, supporters and activists: Friends of the BJP - Worldwid http://www.ofbjp.org/fob featuring Monthly Chat: Second Saturday of every month, 10 AM Eastern US time (calculate local time accordingly) ----------------------------------------------------------------------
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