Seat cuts, missing student Najeeb, and the functioning of V-C Jagdeesh Kumar were among the issues that figured in the addresses delivered today by JNUSU presidential candidates in the run-up to the elections.
After final list of candidates for central panel of the JNU Students' Union was announced today, seven presidential candidates, including two independents, kickstarted their campaign by putting forth their promises and highlighting various issues.
While most of the candidates trained their guns on the ABVP for alleged "atrocities in the name of nationalism", the RSS-student wing accused the outgoing left-led JNUSU leadership of being "incompetent" and pushing the varsity into implementing seat cuts by approaching the court.
Except the ABVP, all the parties castigated VC M Jagdeesh Kumar for his functioning and the implementation of the cuts in research seats.
All the parties have picked women candidates for the president's post -- Nidhi Tripathi (ABVP), Aparajitha Raja (AISF), Geeta Kumari (AISA), Shabana Ali (BAPSA) and Vrishnika Singh (NSUI). The two independents are male.
One of the independent candidates, M D Farooque Alam, said in his speech that he had lost hope in left-wing as well as right-wing parties. The other one, Gaurav Kumar, did not even turn up to the event.
Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students Association (BAPSA) candidate Shabana Ali also accused left parties of not being able to stop right-wing forces which were "marginalising the minority communities", promising to provide an alternative model to solve various issues.
AISF candidate Aparajitha Raja said the JNUSU polls were happening in dark times when around 1,000 students were denied admissions due to seat cuts. The CPI (Communist Party of India) student wing is not part of the left alliance. Aparajitha is the daughter of Rajya Sabha MP and CPI leader D Raja.
The candidates for vice president post are Durgesh Kumar (ABVP), Francis Lalremsiama (NSUI), Simone Zoya Khan (AISA) and Subodh Kunwer (BAPSA).
The general secretary candidates are Duggirala Srikrishna (SFI), Karam Bidyanath Khuman (BAPSA), Nikunj Makwana (ABVP) and Preeti Dhruve (NSUI).
The JNUSU elections are scheduled to be held on September 8 and results will be declared on 11 September, according to a release from the varsity.
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