The recently concluded DUSU and JNUSU polls won’t make both the ABVP and BJP happy. The loss sustained at DU especially, is something which the ABVP must not have anticipated. The people who are saying that such small polls don’t count when brought into comparison with national politics should know that had the ABVP lost in one or two polls, we would have bought this argument. However, the trend continues in all universities which went to polls, namely, Delhi University, JNU, Rajasthan University, Punjab University and even colleges in Tripura. A brief figurative sketch of the results is given below.
To start off with, JNU didn’t really come as a shock as it has been a Left bastion for quite some time now. Moreover, much attention shouldn’t be paid to a university where students (atleast some) eulogise Afzal Guru and Yakub Memon and hold protest marches against their hanging. However, the ABVP being completely washed out here too, comes as a disappointment.
The biggest disappointment is DU, where the ABVP ran a relentless and intense campaign. Here, the NSUI bagged the top two posts and ABVP, the latter two(Secretary and Joint Secretary). The newly elected board comprises Rocky Tuseed and Kunal Sehrawat of the NSUI as president and vice president, and the ABVP’s Mahamedhaa Nagar and Uma Shankar as secretary and joint secretary respectively. The winning margins of Sehrawat and Shankar were 175 and 342 votes in the elections that recorded a 42.8% turnout. What went wrong for the ABVP is quite probable.
The Ramjas College fiasco early this year is what cost the ABVP dearly. The NSUI quite intelligently twisted the issue in their favour, thrusting their entire campaign on one fundamental farce that BJP was sabotaging their freedom of expression.
It seeped into the minds of the students that what would follow if ABVP were to be re-elected would be devastating. The NSUI must remember that had the BJP suppressed their freedom of expression, they wouldn’t have been allowed to carry out their rant campaign. However, we must admit, ABVP has sustained unexpected losses. They must introspect and take corrective measures as to what went wrong on their part in the past year or so.
The most startling result however, was that of Rajasthan University. In the elections at Rajasthan University, the ABVP came a cropper, losing all three major seats. While the president post was won by an independent candidate, NSUI bagged vice-president and general secretary posts. ABVP was sustained with the joint secretary post. It was a blow for the ABVP, as BJP is in power in Rajasthan. We also had the results of the Punjab University elections. NSUI won three posts, including that of the president. Besides its success in the campuses, the Congress made a comeback, especially after a victory in the last Punjab Assembly election.
In Tripura, according to officials of the Higher Education Department of Tripura government, of the total 778 seats in 22 college students’ councils, the SFI(Student’s Federation Of India) and TSU(Tribal Student’s Union) candidates won 530 seats unopposed in nine colleges. The ABVP won 27 seats out of 778.
All these figures may look really good for the NSUI and the Left, however, an interesting phenomenon occurred in the results of the DUSU elections. Delhi University introduced NOTA(None Of The Above) as an option last year – when 17,712 people opted for it. In 2017, there is a 60 per cent increase in that number. Out of the total votes polled for all four posts, NOTA got 29,770 votes this year. The NSUI must therefore want to reduce their ecstatic joy and admit to the fact they did win the DU elections, but not purely on merit, buy on the fact that an outstanding number rejected both sides. The ABVP, by no side is appearing to be in a good situation. There is much for them to look after, failing to which they might lose control over the campuses of this country even before they realize it.
As of the BJP, the signs emerging from these results don’t quite seem to be in their favour, from the youth population point of view.
No doubt that BJP has done a far better job for the country as compared to what ABVP has done for campuses, however, it must keep in mind the fact that 2019 is a year and a half away, and that if it loses it’s connect with the youth of the country, the youth will prove to be a gamechanger in 2019. As of the Congress, it is these petty victories which seems to raise the party to cloud 9.