Right-wing student organization ABVP did not win Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union polls

What is the claim?

Elections for the Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) were held on March 22 after a four-year gap. The results of these polls were announced on Sunday, March 24.

Soon after, posts circulating on social media claimed that the right-wing student organization Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is affiliated to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), had defeated the Left and won the JNUSU polls. Several users shared the post on Facebook and wrote in Bengali, “Defeat of traitor communists in JNU, nationalist BJP student organization ABVP won for the first time after independence, Jai Shree Ram.” Another iteration of this post claimed, “Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) creates history for the first time after independence. JNU is saffron.” 

Screenshots of the viral posts. (Source: Facebook/Modified by Logically Facts)

These posts celebrated the supposed victory of the right wing in the university, predominantly considered as a bastion of the Left. However, the claim is false. While the ABVP was leading in the initial trends, it did not win even one seat in the polls which were eventually won by the Left and an organization backed by the Left.

What did we find?

According to the JNU constitution, there are four seats for the Central Panel, i.e., the president, vice president, general Secretary, and joint secretary. As per reports, Left wing organizations, comprising the All India Students' Association (AISA), Democratic Students' Federation (DSF), Students' Federation of India (SFI), and the All India Students' Federation (AISF), presented a united front to contest the elections. Each party within the left alliance nominated a candidate for each of the four positions.

Reports said that the Left extended its support to Birsa Ambedkar Phule Students' Association (BAPSA) candidate Priyanshi Arya after the Election Committee canceled the nomination of DSF candidate Swati Singh following a challenge by the ABVP.

Contrary to the claims about ABVP’s victory on social media, we found that all media outlets reporting on the elections at the university say that the united Left secured three seats in the students’ union polls and the Left-backed BAPSA won one post. Dhananjay, who represented AISA, has been elected as the president of the student body.

Meanwhile, the RSS-affiliated ABVP lost all the posts by big margins. 

We also found that AISA posted on X (formerly Twitter) that the left panel has won the JNUSU polls and Dhananjay has been elected as president. SFI also posted a video of celebrations after the victory in the university polls.

The verdict

The Left union and BAPSA together won the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union polls. The ABVP contested all four seats and lost all of them. Therefore, we have marked this claim as false.