The Hindu : New Delhi News : Campaigning ends for JNU polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Nov 03, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Campaigning ends for JNU polls

By Our Staff reporter

NEW DELHI, NOV. 2. With Tuesday being the last day of campaigning for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) elections and the much popular presidential debate, it was time for candidates to put their best foot forward and think of all the right things to say to win the mandate of the campus.

Seen as the most important aspect of the election, the presidential debate is considered a strong indicator of the probable winner. Often lasting till the early hours, the debate not only gives candidates the chance to make their point but also tackle questions from the student community.

"The presidential debate is very important as a sizable number of floating voters will make up their mind after hearing the candidates speak tonight. And those voters could make a big difference to the election results in the end,'' said Dhananjay Singh, the presidential candidate of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyrathi Parishad (ABVP).

Although the issues to be taken up during the debate are not likely to be any different from the ones that have been used in the campaigning so far, candidates feel the question-answer session is always the turning point. While the Students' Federation of India-All India Students Federation alliance is likely to once again take up the issue of secularism and saffronisation, for the ABVP it will be the revival of nationalism and its ideals.

The campaigning here may seem quite, but the last week has seen much action on the campus, with many popular figures also being roped in for that extra effect. If the SFI and AISF had popular names like Sitaram Yechury, Javed Akhtar, Amarjeet Kaur and Brinda Karat, the ABVP had Arun Jaitely and Shahnawaz Hussain to Tarun Vijay, the editor of RSS mouthpiece Panchajanya and Mukhtar Naqvi Abbas addressing the students here.

Despite the National Students' Union of India's surprise performance last year, many here feel that the battle is not quite triangular, with the ABVP likely to only gain from any increase in the NSUI votes.

The SFI, however, was busy accusing the NSUI and ABVP of going for an understanding on the seats of presidential and general secretary, while expressing confidence on repeating their win of last year. Also hoping to make an impressive return to the central panel will be the All India Students Association (AISA), whose presidential candidate Mona Das had won the general secretary's post last time round.

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