JNU Teachers’Association polls: Left sweeps, BJP loses all seats

All teachers leaning towards the Left have clean swept the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers Association polls for 2018-19. The BJP-affiliated leaders have lost all posts they contested for.

The panel led by Atul Sood from the School of Social Sciences was elected president; Chirashree Dasgupta and Ajit Khanna have won the Vice President seats. This panel had asked teachers to vote for them to restore the running of the university as stated by the JNU Act.

Avinash Kumar has won the post of Secretary while Amit Parmeshwaran and Parnal Chirmule was elected to the post of the joint secretary. Rakesh Kumar has won the treasurer post.

The Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers’ Association (JNUTA) polls were conducted on Thursday, November 1, and the counting went on till late in the evening. The teachers informed that the voter turnout was between 90% and 91%.

The left-leaning panel had said that the greatest challenge that the new JNUTA would face was to resist the ongoing institutional destruction and restore the culture of dissent, discussion, deliberation and constructive consultation between the various stakeholders of the university.