JU Students Polls: Pro-Left Groups Retain Control, ABVP Makes Presence Felt

Kolkata, Feb 20 (PTI) Pro-Left student bodies swept union elections in the Jadavpur University, even as the ABVP, which contested the polls at the institute for the first time, secured the second spot in one of the faculties.

Left and ultra-Left student organisations retained their hold in all the three faculties of the university where elections were held on Wednesday after a gap of three years.

After the results were announced on Thursday, a university official said the Democratic Students' Federation (DSF) won all the five central panel seats in Engineering faculty.

The We The Independents (WTI), another ultra-Left student outfit, retained its control in the Science faculty securing all four central panel seats.

The SFI, student wing of the CPI(M), won with massive leads in all the four central panel seats in Arts faculty.

Each central panel has posts of a chairperson, a general secretary and two or three assistant general secretaries.

In a significant development, the ABVP which contested for the first time in the JU, known as a hotbed of Left-wing politics, secured the second spot in Engineering faculty relegating the SFI to the third spot.

While the DSF bagged 3,304 votes, the ABVP got 508 votes. The SFI and the TMCP secured 288 and 77 votes respectively, the official said.

DSF leader Abhik said, "The election results showed that students of JU will never allow any divisive forces to spread their ideology of hatred in the campus."

The RSS-affiliated ABVP, although failed to open its account, was happy to be in the second spot.

"We have come up second in Engineering by winning over 500 votes. This is our biggest gain," an ABVP leader said.

The Trinamool Chatra Parishad (TMCP), students' wing of the ruling TMC, not only failed to open an account in any of the faculties but was relgated to the distant fourth spot. position.

Just like Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University, Kolkata's Jadavpur University is considered to be a Leftist bastion.

The results at the JU drew reactions from various political parties, with the CPI(M) saying that the students has stopped the "communal onslaught" in their campus.

"The results show that students who are future of this country have rejected the ideology of the RSS-BJP," CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said.

West Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh congratulated the ABVP for its good show and said the right-wing students' outfit will further improve its tally in days to come.

"We have seen what kind of activities has taken place at the JU campus. So in such a situation, the ABVP making inroads is good news," Ghosh said.

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