Votes were counted for Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) polls on Sunday, 8 November, after high drama over the last two days in the aftermath of an order by the Delhi High Court staying the declaration of results till 17 September.
The trends that were being declared by the varsity's Election Committee (EC) showed a lead for the Left Unity on all the four central panel seats – the president, vice-president, general secretary and the joint secretary.
Meanwhile, the RSS-affiliated ABVP and the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) were neck and neck for the second and third positions.
The Delhi High Court order stayed the declaration of results on Friday, 6 September, after a plea by two students alleging that their nominations for polls were illegally rejected for elections of councillors in JNUSU, PTI reported.
"It is directed that the declaration of final results shall be subject to further orders to be passed by this court. Further, the university is directed not to notify the results till the next date of hearing. List on 17 September," the court said.
Confusion After HC Order
The court order led to much confusion among the EC members and the JNU administration.
A tussle also broke out between the two on Saturday, with the dean of students and chairperson of the Grievance Redressal Cell (GRC) Umesh Kadam reportedly asking the EC not to declare the trends, as doing so would amount to "contempt of court".
While the counting was supposed to start on Friday night itself, after polling was held, it was delayed by over 12 hours, and finally resumed late in the afternoon on Saturday, with the EC coming out with periodic announcements of trends.
In keeping with the HC order on result declaration, the EC had said that the last 150 votes for the central panel posts and the last 50 votes for councillors' posts would not be declared as part of the trends.
Among the organisations in the fray for these students' union elections are the Left Unity – comprising of the All India Students' Association, Students' Federation of India, Democratic Students' Federation and All India Students' Federation – the RSS-affiliated ABVP, BAPSA, NSUI and Chhatra Rashtriya Janata Dal, the students' wing of the RJD.
A turnout of 67.9 percent was recorded in the polls, said to be the highest in seven years.
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