The Chhatra JD(U), student wing of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars party, won the presidents post in the Patna University Students Union (PUSU) elections, the results of which were declared in the early hours of Thursday.
Putting up its best-ever performance, the student body of JD(U) also won the treasurers post while the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of RSS bagged the other key offices of vice president, general secretary and joint secretary.
This is only the second time in the history of Chhatra JD(U) when its candidates have won key posts in PUSU elections. Previously, the student body had won the joint secretarys post in 2012.
The PUSU polls this year witnessed fierce campus rivalry between the Chhatra JD(U) and the ABVP, with allegations of JD(U) national vice-president Prashant Kishor meddling in the elections putting the partys relations with its ally BJP under strain.
Incidentally, both Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi a senior BJP leader had been PUSU leaders.
Hailing the victory of Mohit Prakash and Kumar Satyam for the posts of president and treasurer respectively, JD(U) spokesman Neeraj Kumar tweeted "poll results have placed a mirror before those who have become synonymous with lumpenisation of politics. Patna University students have voted in favour of politics that is free from corruption and imbued with the virtues of character and good conduct."
For the other top posts, the ABVP winners are Anjana Singh (vice president), Manikant Mani (general secretary) and Raja Ravi (joint secretary).
Polling had taken place for the PUSU elections on Wednesday and counting of votes continued through the night.
A controversy had erupted over the visit of Prashant Kishor to the Vice-Chancellors residence on Sunday which had led to angry protests from the ABVP and other student bodies and the poll strategist-turned-politicians vehicle being pelted with stones.
The police rounded up some ABVP leaders for stone-pelting and a delegation of BJP MLAs made a late-night dash to the Raj Bhavan in protest and staged a dharna in front of the police station concerned the next day.
The JD(U) came up with a clarification that Kishor had visited the VCs place along with a relative and not for any discussions relating to PUSU polls, even as leaders of BJP, with which it shares power, and opposition parties like RJD and Congress issued statements accusing the JD(U) of making the students union election a "prestige issue".
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