The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, the student affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, has lost the students’ union elections at Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya in the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh to the National Students’ Union of India, The Indian Express reported on Thursday. The NSUI is the Congress’ student organisation.
The NSUI’s Shivam Shukla defeated the saffron outfit’s Harshit Pandey by 485 votes, while Chandan Kumar Mishra was elected vice president after polling 553 votes. The Congress outfit’s Avnish Pandey became the general secretary by 63 votes. Rajnikant Dubey was elected the librarian.
The results were announced on Wednesday by election officer Shailesh Kumar Mishra, a professor at the university. Vice Chancellor Rajaram Shukla administered the oath to the new office bearers in Sanskrit. They were then escorted home by the police.
Congress General Secretary for Uttar Pradesh East Priyanka Gandhi congratulated the victorious candidates. “So proud of NSUI for the fantastic results at Sampurnanand Sanskrit University: 4 out of 4!! Well done!!” she tweeted. Gandhi is scheduled to visit Varanasi on Friday to meet the students of Banaras Hindu University and members of civil society.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has been in news this week because of its alleged involvement in the violence at Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University. A mob – allegedly comprising ABVP members armed with sticks and hammers – attacked students and teachers of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi on the evening of January 5, injuring at least 34 people.
Members of the ABVP have blamed the violence on “Naxals” and leftist students. However, Scroll.in traced Whatsapp messages planning the attack – as well as celebrating it – to the Hindutva organisation’s activists.
On January 7, around 10 people were injured in a clash between the workers of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and National Students Union of India in the city of Ahmedabad in Gujarat. Violence erupted when NSUI members were protesting near the ABVP office against the violence at Jawaharlal Nehru University. One NSUI leader was hit on the head with a rod.
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