New Delhi, April 29 -- After weeks of feverish campaigning, the much-anticipated Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) elections concluded early on Monday with the Left alliance winning three of four central panel seats. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), ended a decade-long drought by clinching one seat. The Left alliance of the All-India Students' Association (AISA) and Democratic Students' Front (DSF) dominated the central panel. Nitish Kumar (AISA) won the presidential post with 1,702 votes, defeating ABVP's Shikha Swaraj who secured 1,430 votes. Manisha (DSF) won the vice-president post with 1,150 votes, narrowly edging out ABVP's Nittu Goutham, who polled 1,116 votes. Munteha Fatima (DSF) claimed the general secretary's post with 1,520 votes against ABVP's Kunal Rai, who received 1,406. Meanwhile, ABVP breached the Left's "ideological moat" by winning the joint secretary post through Vaibhav Meena - its first central panel victory since Saurabh Sharma's win in 2015. In the elections for 42 councillor seats, which were held alongside the central panel polls, the ABVP claimed to have won 23, including seats where independent candidates allegedly supported them. "Our councillors have claimed a majority. Even where we fell short, the margins were minuscule. This clearly reflects that students have chosen nationalist politics," said Rajeshwar Kant Dubey, ABVP's JNU president. The 2024-25 elections saw a four-cornered contest, with AISA aligning with DSF, while ABVP and an NSUI-Fraternity alliance fielded full panels. Dhananjay, JNU AISA president, dismissed talks of a fragmented Left. "The results speak for themselves. The united Left has swept the central panel with a sound majority," he said. "This is a vote against the shrinking democratic spaces on campus. It reaffirms our fight to protect dialogue and dissent." Newly elected JNUSU president Nitish Kumar told HT that his priority would be forming a charter of demands after consultations with all stakeholders. "We will focus on improving hostel and library infrastructure, making the campus disabled-friendly, and fighting for restored funding to JNU departments, which has been drastically cut in recent years," he said. Acknowledging that the Left vote was somewhat fragmented, he added, "Yet the campus has given a clean mandate to the Left, keeping JNU a true leftist bastion." Manisha, the new vice-president from DSF, said the united Left contested the election to resist BJP-led policies infiltrating the campus. "The administration is against us. They cut our funds, suspended our water supply, fined us for raising our voices - this victory is against all these odds," she said. During early rounds of counting, ABVP candidates led in all four central panel positions, signalling a strong challenge to the Left's traditional dominance. "ABVP has worked hard on the ground and strengthened its position as the single largest party," said Ambuj Mishra, a PhD student from ABVP in International Relations. Newly elected joint secretary Vaibhav Meena described his win as a "victory of tribal consciousness and nationalist ideology" that had long been suppressed. "It's a massive and fascinating victory of tribal consciousness and the nationalist ideology which has been suppressed by the Left in the varsity for years," he said. This year's elections, delayed by campus violence, were held on April 25. A total of 5,448 votes were cast for the central panel posts, with a voter turnout of nearly 73%. The elections unfolded amid discontent over alleged structural changes at JNU. Left-leaning students accused the BJP-led administration of manipulating PhD admissions and favouring RSS-BJP loyalists over academic merit. Adding to the tensions, several students accused ABVP activists of burning a Palestinian flag during the counting process - a move seen as symbolic of their alleged support for American-Israeli interests....