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The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has won the University of Hyderabad’s Students’ Union election held on Friday, September 19. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-backed student outfit won the majority of the positions, defeating the Left and Ambedkarite alliances on campus.
From the ABVP-Sevalal Vidyarthi Dal (ABVP-SLVD) panel, Shiva Palepu was elected as President. Devendra was elected as Vice President, Shruti Priya as General Secretary, Saurabh Shukla as Joint Secretary, Jwala as Sports Secretary, and Venus as Cultural Secretary.
ABVP last won the UoH election in 2018. Since 2019, Ambedkar Students' Association (ASA) and Students' Federation of India (SFI), the two major progressive students’ organisations in the campus, had together consecutively thwarted the RSS’s student’s wing ABVP from winning the Students’ Union elections.
This year’s election was held soon after the ASA and SFI parted ways after remaining in an alliance for six years. In 2018 too, ABVP had won for the first time in eight years after the SFI-ASA alliance collapsed.
The polls were also held a week after protests on campus by the previous Students’ Union for 2024-25, against the administration dissolving the Union. The previous election was won by a coalition of the SFI, ASA, Dalit Students' Union (DSU), and Bahujan Students' Front (BSF).
Protesting groups said that at a recent meeting with the Dean, Students’ Welfare (DSW), all student organisations except ABVP had agreed to hold elections only after ongoing Union activities were completed. ASA and other groups alleged that the decision to dissolve the Union showed that the administration was siding with ABVP.
The six-year partnership between ASA and SFI collapsed over the inclusion of Muslim groups, setting the stage for a three-cornered contest between alliances led by ASA, SFI, and ABVP.
ASA formed an alliance with Muslim students organisations such as Fraternity Movement and Muslim Students’ Federation, and also the Left-wing All India Students' Association (AISA).
SFI on the other hand contested in alliance with Dalit-Bahujan organisations such as Dalit Students’ Union, Bahujan Students’ Front and Tribal Students’ Forum.
The reason behind the alliance’s breakup was attributed to ASA’s insistence to include Muslim organisations like MSF and Fraternity Movement in the panel, which SFI opposed. MSF is the student wing of Kerala-based Indian Union Muslim League while Fraternity Movement is the student’s organisation of Welfare Party of India – another Kerala-based party which focuses on Muslim-Bahujan issues.
The ABVP contested the election mainly on the plank of restoring the University’s falling rank and “saving” University land. The election came months after the huge movement on campus to stop the Telangana government from acquiring 400 acres of the Kancha Gachibowli land adjacent to the campus for IT and infrastructure projects.
Polling was also held for school board members, school councillors, and internal complaints committee representatives for research, postgraduate, and integrated programmes. Polling was held on September 19 with a turnout of over 81%, and counting was done on September 20.
A total of 169 candidates contested for the key Union positions.