New Delhi: With Rajasthan assembly polls barely 15 months away, the outcome of the student union elections in the state has set alarm bells ringing within the Congress.
The National Student Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of the Congress, failed to bag even a single presidential post in 14 universities across Rajasthan, including one in Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s home turf, Jodhpur.
The party suffered another setback Tuesday, two days after the student union election results were announced — Khiladi Lal Bairwa, an MLA from the Gehlot camp, said he wanted deputy chief minister Sachin Pilot to be CM.
“Given the situation in Rajasthan, what is the problem if Sachin Pilot is made CM? The youth and people of his community (Gujjars) are with him,” said Bairwa, who is also chairman of the Rajasthan Commission for Scheduled Caste.
The setbacks for the Congress have come at a time when a section of the party is pitching for Gehlot to be moved to Delhi as the next Congress president if Wayanad MP Rahul Gandhi opts out of the race.
So how did the NSUI face such a major rout in student union elections in a Congress-ruled state? When this question was asked to NSUI leaders, some of them blamed the intense and prolonged Gehlot-Pilot tussle. Student wings of rival parties meanwhile claimed that the youth of the state were disappointed over “multiple exam paper leaks, issues of women’s security, and crime rates”.
ThePrint reached Rajasthan Pradesh Congress Committee (RPCC) Chief Govind Singh Dotasra for a reaction, but he refused to comment.
Rajasthan Congress spokesperson Swarnim Chaturvedi said he believes the results will have little impact on the party’s performance in the 2023 assembly polls since two of the winning candidates were rebel NSUI leaders.
“In two main universities — Rajasthan University in Jaipur and Jai Narain University in Jodhpur — ABVP’s candidates lost their deposits. Top three candidates, which included rebel candidates also, were from NSUI,” Chaturvedi said, adding that while the NSUI “performed well” in colleges, there is room for improvement.
Sensing an opportunity to gain lost ground, the BJP is all set to turn the heat up in Rajasthan. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and party president J.P. Nadda are likely to attend a meeting of the BJP’s OBC morcha in Jodhpur next week.
Former Rajasthan chief minister and senior BJP leader Vasundhara Raje took to Twitter to term the outcome of student union elections as a sign of “anger of the people who are fed up with the Congress’ bad governance”.
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In the running: ABVP, NSUI, SFI
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) affiliate Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won presidential posts in seven of the 14 universities. They were followed by the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) — the student wing of CPI(M) — with two, while Independents won the remaining five.
Hushyar Meena, national secretary of the ABVP, said their candidates won because of the ABVP’s “round-the-clock presence in the state and organisational structure”.
“We work 365 days on campuses even where there are no elections. The youth were disappointed over multiple exam paper leaks, issues of female security and crime rates. Rajasthan government imposed elections on us thinking they will prove that the youth is with them, but the NSUI did not win a single presidential post,” Meena said.
Denying that the tussle between CM Gehlot and Pilot played spoiler for NSUI in the student polls, NSUI national secretary Varun Choudhary told ThePrint: “Ashok Gehlot ji is chief minister of the whole state, there is no question of whether he supported particular candidates or was taking special interest in student elections.”
Choudhary further said that the NSUI gave tickets to a woman candidate in Rajasthan University because it wanted to give prominence to female representation. “In Rajasthan, women do not come forward for politics. We fielded a female candidate for the presidential post in RU, but that decision did not play out in our favour. However, there are still colleges where NSUI performed well and ABVP did not even get selected for one position.”
Rebel NSUI candidate wins RUSU polls
While counting of votes was still underway, NSUI expelled six of its members for contesting as Independents in the universities of Rajasthan, Bikaner and Jodhpur.
Independents Nirmal Choudhary and Niharika Jorwal, both rebel NSUI leaders, came in first and second in the Rajasthan University Students’ Union (RUSU) elections while NSUI’s official candidate came in third.
Jorwal is the daughter of Congress MLA Murari Lal Meena, who is a minister in the Gehlot government, while Choudhary enjoyed the support of Congress MLA from Ladnun, Mukesh Bhakar. Both Meena and Bhakar are seen as Sachin Pilot loyalists.
Choudhary, in his victory speech, said he considered Pilot his “ideal”.
The Rajasthan University election holds greater political significance because in its 35-year history, it has produced over 15 MPs and MLAs.
Similarly, in Jodhpur’s Jai Narain Vyas University, SFI candidate Arvind Bhati defeated NSUI’s Harendra Choudhary despite CM Gehlot’s son Vaibhav having campaigned for the latter. Bhati contested as an SFI candidate after he was denied a ticket by the NSUI.
Dinesh Parihar, president of NSUI’s Jodhpur unit, blamed “caste equations” for the loss to SFI in Jai Narain Vyas University.
“SFI gave tickets to a Rajput while both ABVP and NSUI chose the Jat candidate. Here, in Jodhpur, elections are fought on caste equations and the Rajput votes get divided,” Parihar said. Asked if the Gehlot-Pilot tussle could’ve played a role in the outcome of the student union elections, Parihar replied in the negative.
NSUI leaders blame Pilot-Gehlot tussle
“Everybody knows what is going on between Sachin Pilot and Ashok Gehlot. I would not blame any other party for the defeat, when there is an internal tiff, what can we do,” remarked one NSUI candidate who had to face defeat in the student union polls, not wanting to be named.
“We did not ask for support from anyone personally because I knew if I went to any particular camp for support, I would have lost my support from the other. In politics, you cannot displease anyone, and we are just starting out as student union leaders,” the candidate told ThePrint. “Maybe If I had run as an independent candidate, I would have got more support.”
A district president of the NSUI, too, said on condition of anonymity that “parivaar mein phoot” (split within the family) is to blame for NSUI’s performance in the student union elections.
“All universities had the same factor, the support got divided due to factionalism within the party. We will raise this issue to the high command because it is us young student leaders who are bearing the brunt of the ego-clash between two senior leaders,” he said.
Another NSUI candidate who lost the elections alleged that “propaganda and groupism” cost her the post of president. “I have been working hard for 6-7 months but the candidates opposite me were brought in just a few months ago.”
The candidate added: “Votes were divided due to caste, money. Party belongs to everyone, but due to a tiff between Gehlot ji and Pilot ji, student organisation got divided between two groups. This definitely cost us votes.”
It is for the Congress high command to read the message in the students’ union election results, said a senior party functionary from Rajasthan who is close to Pilot. “Unless they change CM immediately, the party is doomed in the next elections,” he told ThePrint.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)