PU polls 2023: CONGratulations pour in for NSUI as party makes comeback after 6 years

In a major comeback after six years, Congress Party’s student wing, National Students Union of India (NSUI) won the president’s post at Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC) elections by defeating Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti’s (CYSS), a student wing of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Jatinder Singh of NSUI, who had quit Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and joined the Congress’ student wing merely eight days before the polls, defeated CYSS candidate Divyansh Thakur by a margin of 603 votes. The CYSS had won the 2022 presidential election in its maiden foray at PU, hitting headlines. NSUI had last won the PU elections in 2017.

The election outcome assumes significance, especially ahead of the Lok Sabha elections next year as the PU poll verdict is often referred to as the “mood of the region”. The varsity has a 15,000-strong student voter base, most of whom come from Punjab, Haryana, where student polls are not held, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh.

While Jatinder Singh polled 3,002 votes, CYSS’ Divyansh Thakur got 2,399 votes and Rakesh Deshwal of ABVP bagged 2,182 votes. ABVP was second in the race last year. Interestingly, last year’s CYSS winner was also an ABVP turncoat.

Jatinder got most of the votes from University Institute of Legal Studies (476) followed by UIET (276) and the department of laws (150).

The vice-president’s post went to Ranmeekjot Kaur of Sath, a local students’ group, who got 4,084 votes. The party which had used a picture of human rights activist Jaswant Singh Khalra got its first win on the 28th anniversary of his forced disappearance.

Deepak Goyat of Indian National Student Organization (INSO), a student wing of Haryana’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), was elected secretary with 4,431 votes and Gourav Chahal of Panjab University Helping Hands (PUHH), a homegrown student group, which was in an alliance with ABVP was elected joint secretary. NSUI had fought only for the president’s post this year.

Last year, the post of vice-president was won by NSUI, secretary by INSO and joint secretary by NSUI.

Shiromani Akali Dal’s student wing, Student Organization of India (SOI) and old war horses of the campus -- Panjab University Students Union (PUSU), Student Organization of Panjab University (SOPU), and 2018’s presidential election winner Students for Society (SFS) failed to win any seat.

The presidential candidate winner Jatinder is a former convenor for ABVP in PU. The 26-year-old hails from Bathinda has been active in student politics for seven years as he has done BTech and MTech from UIET. He is currently a research scholar at Dr SS Bhatnagar University Institute of Chemical Engineering & Technology where he is a PhD scholar. He claimed that in ABVP, he was not allowed to organise an event against the violence in Manipur after which he joined NSUI.

After victory, Jatinder said a committee would be formed to look into issue of granting twelve menstrual leaves to female and improving connectivity between the North campus and South campus.

A total of 10,323 votes were polled out of 15,693 votes. With 66 percent polling, this was marginally less than 66.1% polling seen last year. The

poll process which started at 9 am, remained peaceful.