Hyderabad: The University of Hyderabad (UoH) administration has withheld the result of the students’ union presidential election and a recounting has been scheduled for Friday, November 1.
The result of the 2024-2025 UoH student union presidential election was kept on hold by the election commission, raising suspicion among students. On Wednesday, October 30, the election commission chairperson released a circular issuing guidelines for the recounting process, which was for November 1.
Meanwhile, several students’ organisations have come forward in protest against the motion pointing out the discrepancies in notification.
All the organisations have questioned the ground on which the recounting process is declared. They have called the initiation a week after the original announcement of results highly objectionable.
It is important to note that an active member of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is part of the election grievance committee, which has led to claims of bias in the committee’s functioning. Students have accused the election commission partisan for the lack of transparency. The student organisations are equally concerned about the possibility of ballot boxes being tampered with.
A joint statement issued by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI), Ambedkar Students’ Association (ASA), Dalit Students’ Union (DSU), and Bahujan Students’ Front (BSF) condemning the undemocratic nature of the ongoing political drama at the UoH campus.
“This is a blatant violation of the Lyngdoh commission report and the students’ union constitution. The constitution clearly states that the call for recounting must be given at the earliest. And the very election commission no more holds value as more than 48 hours past the result announcement,” a representative of SFI told Siasat.com.
The result of the 2024-25 UoH-SU election was announced on Sunday, October 25. A Umesh Ambedkar from the Left-Ambedkarite alliance of ASA-BSF-DSU-SFI emerged victorious in the presidential election on a margin of 18 votes. Umesh Ambedkar collected 1313 votes, whereas his closest opponent and former general secretary of ABVP-HCU Akash Bhati, who contested as an independent collected 1295 votes.
The recent election followed the abrupt dissolution of the previous students’ union, which was communicated through a circular issued by the Dean of Students’ Welfare (DSW) on October 15. Notably, the election was called without convening a University General Body Meeting (UGBM), raising questions about the decision-making process leading up to this electoral cycle and was widely condemned by various student organisations on the UoH campus.
In light of recent events on the campus, the university administration is allegedly sponsoring the Sangh Parivar agendas. The activities of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) have been given a free ride by the administration. The increasing number of violent incidents unleashed by ABVP is also going unchecked by the authorities.
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