PUSU polls: Women, independents steal the show; NSUI makes strong statement, ABVP wins president’s post

Three of the five central panel seats of the Patna University students’ union (PUSU) were bagged by Girl candidates , including the post of president by the BJP-affiliate Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad and the posts of vice president and general secretary by independents, in a keenly fought election.

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Another significant aspect of the election, which witnessed lowest voter turnout in the last three elections at just 45.25%, was the preference for independent candidates, who bagged two central panel seats.

Congress-backed National Students Union of India (NSUI) made a strong presence, with its candidates winning two seats for the first time after a very long period and runners up in the election for the posts of president and vice president.

The candidates backed by Prashant Kishor’s Jan Suraj Party drew a blank to witness yet another reversal after the by-elections last year. Jan Suraj had contested four seats after withdrawing from the presidential race. Jan Suraj was in contention for two seats, but ultimately lost.

RJD, which also contested independently despite the presence of NSUI and left parties, also drew a blank. In fact, the voting percentage shows that RJD candidate Priyanka Kumari’s vote share in the election for the president’s post was higher than the winning margin of ABVP’s Maithil Mrinalini, who went on to script history as the first woman president of PUSU.

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While NSUI’s Manoranjan Kumar got mere 606 votes less than ABVP candidate, RJD candidate got over 800 votes to make the job easier for the ABVP, which could not win any other seat apart from that of the President.

ABVP also seemed to benefit from the absence of the JD-U, which did not field any candidate in election this time despite sweeping the polls last time. Maithili polled 3524 votes and registered victory by margin of 603 votes.

The independent candidate for General Secretary post Saloni Raj polled 4274 votes across all candidates . Dheeraj Patel’s victory on the vice president’s post as an independent candidate is, however, seen as an indirect stamp of the JD-U. Patel hostel students also congratulated him promptly.

The posts of vice president and general secretary went to independent candidates Dheeraj Kumar and Saloni Raj respectively, while NSUI’s Somya Srivastava and Rohan won the seats for joint secretary and treasurer respectively, defeating nearest rivals from Jan Suraj.

In the last election, JD-U backed candidates had won four of the five central panel seats - first in PU history. In 2018 also, JD-U had won the seat of president. However, it did not field any candidate this time and its students’ union president also resigned ahead of elections. For the RJD, the results remained the same as in 2022, as it drew a blank yet again.

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Known as the cradle of politics, which blossomed during the students’ movement under Loknayak Jai Prakash Narayan and went to produce leaders like Lalu Prasad, Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi, Ashwini Choubey, Ravishankar Prasad, Ram Jatan Sinha, Anil Sharma and many more, PU elections always draw a lot of attention, though its relevance in mainstream election has significantly diminished due to lack fo space for youth on the bigger platform of state politics in the last three decades.

Though direct political interference is not allowed as per the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee, which prohibits election on party lines, it becomes obvious every time.