In a massive morale booster for the ABVP, it has managed to clean sweep the University of Hyderabad students’ union elections after a long gap of 8 years. It has bagged all top posts including that of the university president. The elections were conducted on October 5 and saw a 75% student turnout. ABVP’s Aarti N Nagpal, a PhD scholar, bagged the president’s post with 1,663 votes and defeated her rivals- leftist SFI candidate, Erram Naveen Kumar and the United Democratic Alliance’s G Sreeja Vasthavi by a significant margin. Her rivals managed to secure only 1,329 and 842 votes respectively.
ABVP also bagged the posts of Vice-President, General Secretary, Joint Secretary, Sports Secretary and Cultural Secretary. This is for the first time since 2010 that a single student body has swept all union posts. This fact in itself suggests that this is a major triumph for the ABVP. This comes soon after the ABVP bagged three top posts in DUSU elections and NSUI was left with merely one post in the Students’ Union. The united front of left and AAP affiliated students’ union was not able to win any post in the polls. This also reveals the general perception in the minds of the college students which is changing in favor of the ABVP, showing that young minds and first-time voters are inclined towards the ideology that the ABVP espouses.
ABVP is rightfully celebrating its massive victory in the University of Hyderabad students’ elections. This comes as a huge breather for the ABVP as they had lost the last two elections for the Students’ Union by very thin margins. After the suicide of Rohith Vemula, a student at the University of Hyderabad a number of lies were peddled against the Modi government. The politicization of an unfortunate and tragic death was aimed at defaming the Modi government, which made the university a breeding ground for anti-Modi government propaganda. The fact that the ABVP has been able to secure a landslide victory in the university barely two years after vicious propaganda by the opposition speaks volumes of the significance of this victory. In 2016, after the suicide of Rohith Vemula, most of the seats at the students’ union elections in the university were bagged by the United Front for Social Justice, a coalition of several student bodies led by Ambedkar Students Association and the CPI(M)-affiliated SFI. In the next year, same organizations regrouped under the Alliance for Social Justice banner and once again bagged all top posts at the university. ABVP was defeated successively for two years and must have been looking for ways to put up a better show.
Given the recent past of University of Hyderabad, what ABVP has done is nothing short of a miracle. It has not only put up a brave fight against extensive, vicious and false propaganda but it has also been able to comprehensively defeat its bitter opponents. This also shows a general trend which is encouraging for the BJP. Young voters, especially the first-time voters seem to be unaffected by large scale propaganda sponsored by the Azadi and ‘tukde tukde’ gang. In fact, all attempts of an anti-India propaganda have been absolutely rejected. The youth has instead voiced its support for the nationalist ideology that the ABVP represents. The way ABVP has reclaimed its position in University of Hyderabad is a very positive sign for the BJP as the nation is gears up for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.