Of the nine elected students, six are Dalits including the President Prajwal Gaikwad who sees the win as a message to marginalised community students to unite.
The ASA-SFI-DSU alliance registered victory in all the posts in the 2023 UOH Student Union elections. (Supplied)
The University of Hyderabad (UOH) declared the Students’ Union election results on Saturday, 25 February, in which a diverse and inclusive panel of the Ambedkar Students’ Association-Students’ Federation of India-Dalit Students’ Union (ASA-SFI-DSU) alliance swept to power.
The University of Hyderabad (UoH) — or HCU, as it is commonly referred to by students — had held elections after three-and-a-half years owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“I feel more responsible now because of the mandate the students have given us despite the money influx by opposition to ensure that students do not give a mandate to progressive unions,” newly-elected president and a PhD scholar in gender studies Prajwal Gaikwad (24) told South First.
Receiving a huge mandate, the ASA-SFI-DSU alliance registered victories in all the posts for which elections were held at HCU — president, vice president, general secretary, joint secretary, sports secretary, and cultural secretary.
Recalling the over 30 years of ASA’s struggle, Gaikwad, a Dalit student from the Mahar community in Nashik (Maharashtra), said: “UoH thrives on Dalit students and the alliance will continue to ensure that students from marginalised communities come and make their space in the university.”
It should be noted that six of the nine students elected in the HCU election are Dalits.
Elected representatives at Rohith Vemula statue. (Supplied)
“This victory is a message to the students of the marginalised communities to unite so that nobody becomes a victim of institutional hierarchy,” Gaikwad said.
Thanking all those who worked hard to ensure the victory of the alliance, he stressed that the welfare of the student community would be their priority.
Noting the disruptions ABVP made during the campaign, Gaikwad added that the students have answered the ABVP by the mandate.
“This win also resonates with the ideology of Rohith Anna (Rohith Vemula). He would have been pleased to see this panel. He opposed the systematic attacks and campaigned against baseless allegations,” Gaikwad pointed out, adding that such attacks are more frequent and intense now as more casteist elements are getting into the university.
Hritik Laxman Lalan (21) of the ASA is the first Dalit transgender woman who has been elected as the postgraduate representative of the ICC-GSCASH.
Members of ASA-SFI-DSU celebrate after the result. (Supplied)
She remembered the time when she announced her candidature. “I was worried if people would support me or not, because I do not live in a ladies’ hostel. But the mandate proved me wrong,” she told South First.
Expressing her gratitude to the ASA and students over the mandate, she viewed it as a response to the regressive and transphobic policies of the BJP government backed by the RSS.
“ABVP is talking about gender sensitisation, but the BJP legislators reduced the worth of trans people by passing the Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act in 2019. A clause in it says that verbal and sexual abuse of a trans person could lead to imprisonment between six months to two years, a punishment which is grossly less compared to the same crime committed against a cis woman,” she said.
Elected as UoH’s first woman general secretary, Kripa Maria George of the SFI expressed her happiness over leading a diverse union.
“In this union, people have diverse marginalised as well as sexual identities. I am thankful to the students who worked day and night,” an elated Kripa told South First.
Noting that the students have given a message to the ABVP that they cannot be fooled, she said, “It is a huge victory for us and a huge message that students are rejecting right wing agenda and propaganda.”
“Since the time the election process started, the UoH [HCU] administration has supported the ABVP. We asked them to schedule election between 28 February and 3 March as more students would have been present then, but they did not listen,” she alleged.
“The UGBM was disrupted by the ABVP, which used violence, and the Dean of Students’ Welfare (DSW) — without putting any effort — cancelled the UGBM instead of trying to solve the issue. It shows a back-channel coordination between the ABVP and the administration. The agenda was to not conduct the UGBM and even the presidential debate properly, so that they would not be held answerable,” she added.
Celebrations in full swing after the UOH 2023 Student Union election results. (Supplied)
For the post of president, Gaikwad received 1,838 votes and defeated the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)-OBC Federation-Sevalal Vidhyarthi Dal alliance candidate, Balakrishna, who got 1,230 votes.
From the ASA-SFI-DSU, Pruthvi Sai won the vice-president’s post with 1,860 votes while Kripa Maria George won the general secretary post with 2,076 votes.
Among others, Kathi Ganesh won the joint secretary’s post with 1,617 votes, CH Jayaraj won the sports secretary’s post with 1,644 votes and Likith Kumar the post of cultural secretary with 1,789 votes.
Meanwhile, the ABVP-OBC-SVD alliance came second in all the seats, while the alliance of the Bahujan Students Front, Fraternity Movement, Muslim Students Federation-National Students Union of India, and Tribal Students Forum came third in all the seats.
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