Students at Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru University will elect a new president after voting today.
Students at Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University are voting today to elect a new president after Kanhaiya Kumar, who was charged with sedition over a campus event and who spent 21 days in jail.
Elections are also being held at the Delhi University with around 35 candidates fighting it out for the four top spots in the two politically active campuses.
This year, the JNU polls will not feature the party of last year's president Kanhaiya Kumar, who was arrested on sedition charges over anti-India slogans raised at an event on February 9 to mark parliament attack convict Afzal Guru's hanging. Mr Kumar's All India Students' Federation (AISF) has decided to skip the polls after the university suspended him.
At the all-night debate, students also raised the rape allegations against student activist Anmol Ratan, who was a member of the Left-affiliated-union All India Student Association (AISA).
Rival student activists targeted AISA for not acting against its member.
Anmol Ratan surrendered on the night of August 24 after being accused of raping a fellow student. He was suspended by the university and is currently in police custody.
Debutant party Birsa Ambedkar Phule Association's Rahul Sonpimple stole the show with a powerful address at the traditional all night debate on Wednesday.
"
Kitna daraoge ki Gabbar ajaega, Gabbar ajaega? Mein kehta hoon ki is baar campus
mein Gabbar nahi kalbi aayega," he said making a reference to Rajinikanth's film Kabali.
The flogging of Dalits in Gujarat's Una was also discussed with barbs directed at the central government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Left parties - the Students' Federation of India and the All India Student Students' Association - have joined hands to form the United Left Panel to counter "saffronisation on campus".
They are up against the Congress' National Students Union Of India (NSUI), Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which is linked to the BJP and two relatively new parties -- the Birsa Ambedkar Phule Association and the Students' Front for Swaraj.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) has decided not to contest the Delhi University election after failing to make any mark last year. AAP's student wing, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti has boycotted the elections and instead says it will campaign against the purported 'muscle and money power' that dominates the elections.
For the first time, however, AISA is contesting the Delhi University polls, turning the two-way political fight to a three-cornered one.