Copyright india
JNUSU Election 2025: All India Students Association (AISA) candidate Aditi Mishra was elected as the new President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union (JNUSU) as the Left Unity-- an alliance of left-aligned student groups-- swept the polls on Thursday by winning all four central panel posts. Who is Aditi Mishra? A native of Varanasi Uttar Pradesh Aditi Mishra attended school in neighbouring Bihar and later attended the Banaras Hindu University (BHU) where she pursued an undergraduate degree in Economics. As per media reports Aditi first forayed into student activism in 2017 when she took part in campus protests at the BHU against the undemocratic and patriarchal women’s hostel curfew timings. Later Aditi Mishra joined Pondicherry University in 2018 where she led a gherao of the Vice Chancellors Office to protest against the alleged saffronisation campaign in the campus which began with the systematic installation of banners quoting Hindutva ideologues according to her JNUSU campaign page. In 2019 Aditi participated in a student-led lockdown of the administrative block at the varsity against an arbitrary fee hike as well as in solidarity with the ongoing anti-CAA protests. The protests intensified and stretched into 2020 and Mishra stood out as the voice who spoke against disenfranchisement of marginalised students. Currently Aditi Mishra is pursuing her PhD at the Centre for Comparative Politics and Political Theory (CCPPT) School of International Studies (SIS) at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). How Aditi Mishra became JNUSU President? On Thursday Aditi Mishra was crowned as the new President of the JNUSU after defeating her closest rival RSS-backed ABVP candidate Vikas Patel by a margin of 449 votes. Mishra secured a total of 1861 votes in the JNUSU elections. Notably as a second year PhD student Aditi Mishra was earlier elected as the IC representative and worked to make it accountable and approachable to the varsitys student body. Left Unity sweeps JNUSU Elections Aditis victory came as the Left Unity-- comprised of AISA Students Federation of India (SFI) and Democratic Students Federation (DSF)-- swept the JNUSU Elections reaffirming the Lefts dominance on the JNU campus. Kizhakoot Gopika Babu bagged the vice-presidents post after trouncing Tanya Kumari while Sunil Yadav and Danish Ali won the posts of general secretary and joint secretary after defeating their right-wing rivals Rajeshwar Kant Dubey and Anuj respectively. This year around 9043 students were eligible to vote. The polls recorded a 67 per cent turnout slightly lower than the previous elections 70 per cent. The campus saw vibrant participation with students queuing up outside hostels and schools amid chants drumbeats and campaign songs. The result marks a setback for the ABVP which made a comeback to the JNUSU central panel last year when Vaibhav Meena won the joint secretarys post — the outfits first victory in a decade. Earlier Saurabh Sharmas win in 2015 had ended a 14-year drought for the right-wing organisation.
