JNU students gherao dean office over delay in students' union elections

NEW DELHI: Students of Jawaharlal Nehru University on Wednesday staged a demonstration outside the dean’s office against a delay in holding the students' union elections in the university. The students led by the JNUSU demanded that dates for conducting the elections be released immediately as they 'gheraoed' the office of Dean of Students (DoS), Manuradha Chaudhary.

The students' union elections have not been held in JNU for four years. The last JNUSU election was held in 2019. Slogans of "WeWantOurUnionBack" and "revoke proctorial inquiries" rang through the protest as students also demanded redressal of infrastructural issues.

"The JNUSU gave a call for Gherao DoS today with the demand of immediate conduct of JNUSU elections, addressing the hostel infrastructure, opening of Barack Hostel, release of hostel single seater list,” the JNUSU said in a statement after the protest.

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“Although Associate DoS met the JNUSU delegation, there was no concrete response regarding the election dates. The only response received was regarding the hostel lists, which will be processed by the end of this month," the statement said.

The JNUSU has given a call to the student community to join their protest and not cooperate with the administration unless election dates are declared. It also appealed to students to gather at SL-SIS lawn on Thursday for a ‘Postcard Campaign’ to raise a demand for greater “campus democracy”.