The Left Unity has swept the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) polls as counting of votes concluded on late Saturday evening. The election was being closely watched after this year’s sedition row sparked a wave of protests on the campus.

The alliance of All India Students’ Association (AISA) and the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), named Left Unity, won all the four central panel posts in the JNUSU elections: Mohit K. Pandey (president), Amal Pullarkkat (vice president), Satarupa Chakraborty (general secretary) and Tabrez Hasan (joint secretary).

The Left Unity also claimed 14 of the 15 councillor seats at the varsity’s School of Languages, School of International Studies and School of Social Sciences. The remaining one was bagged by the Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF).

The newly-founded Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students’ Association (BAPSA) candidates polled second highest votes for the posts of the president and vice president, while the ABVP and DSF candidates came second for the posts of general secretary and joint secretary, respectively.

According to JNU insiders, the Left alliance has also made a dent in science schools, the stronghold of RSS’ student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

The Friday polls saw a good voter turnout of nearly 60 per cent, significantly higher than the last two years. Over 5,100 voters were polled, according to the JNUSU election panel.

The SFI, affiliated to the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), and the AISA, the student wing backed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist (CPI-ML), had formed an alliance to contain the RSS’ ABVP. This was the first student election in the campus since the controversial February 9 event, commemorating the ‘judicial killing’ of 2001 Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru.