All four candidates of the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) are currently leading in the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union election. The counting is still underway and the final results are expected by this evening.
So far, 1,421 votes have been counted. Of these, ABVP's President candidate Umesh Chandra has got 626 votes, while the Left's Dhananjay has secured 471.
For general secretary post, after counting of 1,421 votes, ABVP's Arjun Anand is leading with 695 votes, while the Left's Priyanshi Arya is trailing with 487 votes. For the joint secretary post, ABVP's Govind Dangi is ahead with 734 votes while Left's Sajid has secured 448.
Polling for the four-member central panel and other posts was done on Friday. There are 19 candidates vying for the four central panel posts of JNUSU and 42 candidates for school councillors, with seven candidates eyeing the post of the president alone.
The central panel constitutes the posts of President, Vice President, Joint Secretary, and General Secretary.
From the United Left alliance, Dhananjay from the All India Students Association (AISA), Avijit Ghosh from the Students Federation of India (SFI), and Md Sajid from All India Students Federation (AISF) are headed for a win in the central panel.
The candidature of the Left's fourth contender for the central panel, Swati Singh, was cancelled by the election committee hours before the polling.
From ABVP, Umesh Chandra Ajmeera, Deepika Sharma, Arjun Anand, and Govind Daangi are in the race for the central panel.
Congress-affiliated NSUI's Junaid Raza and Farheen Zaidi, along with BAPSA's Biswajit Minji, MD Anas A, Priyanshi Arya, and Rupak Kumar Singh are also potential contenders to form the next students union.
JNU will get its next students' union after a gap of four years. The last JNUSU results, for the polls held in 2019, were not notified by the university administration, and hence the recognition of the United Left which swept the polls is a contested topic among students.
(With inputs from PTI)