Hyd Uni students' election: ABVP members begin protest to declare their VP candidate valid

ABVP warned of an indefinite strike if their candidate was not appointed as the vice-president.
Hyd Uni students' election: ABVP members begin protest to declare their VP candidate valid
Hyd Uni students' election: ABVP members begin protest to declare their VP candidate valid
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The crisis in University of Hyderabad (UoH) over the election of the Vice-President of the students’ union took a new turn on Friday, as students of the Akhila Bharatiya Vidya Parishad (ABVP) threatened an indefinite strike if the varsity administration didn’t declare and recognise their candidate as valid.

This comes after the Tribal Students’ Forum (TSF) took up a relay hunger strike, accusing the administration of foul practices to annul the candidature of Lunavath Naresh as the Vice President.

Naresh was elected as the Vice President in the 2017-18 Students’ Union election, after he secured 1,884 votes.

However, the ABVP alleged that Naresh’s candidature was invalid because he lacked attendance. A Grievance Redressal Committee (GRC) probed the matter and disqualified the election of Lunavath subsequently.

The GRC found that Naresh had attendance below the required 75%, which is a criterium to take up any students’ elected post, as per the rules of the university.

However, alleging that the administration had resorted to foul-practices and manipulation, leaders of TSF launched a relay hunger strike on Tuesday and are continuing with the strike. They demanded that their candidate be reinstated, despite the administration disqualifying him.

Following the relay hunger strike, UoH had deputed a retired High Court judge to probe the issue. However, unconvinced members of TSF had threatened that they would go on an indefinite hunger strike from Sunday.  

Amidst this crisis, ABVP on Friday protested at the administration building, accusing officials of laxity. They said that if the vice-president was disqualified for not meeting the eligibility criterium, it will only be fair if their candidate, who was a runner up in election, be instated as vice-president.

Casting doubts over the election of sports secretary, they also demanded the elected sports secretary from the ASJ (Alliance for Social Justice) panel be removed and their candidate be replaced.  

ABVP said that a re-election was not required, and asked the administration to declare their candidate as valid. It also threatened that they will launch an indefinite strike if the administration doesn’t elect their candidates within 24 hours.

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