A research scholar, Richa Singh, was elected the president of the Allahabad University Students’ Union (AUSU) on Wednesday. An independent candidate, Richa won by a narrow margin of 11 votes in the elections held earlier in the day. She is believed to be the first woman to be elected to the post in the 128-year history of the university.

The remaining positions in the students’ union, including that of the vice-president, general secretary and cultural secretary, were bagged by the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

The Samajwadi Party’s Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha (SCS), Congress’s National Students’ Union of India and student bodies of the Left Front failed to open the account.

The University officials brushed aside reports about a woman belonging to the Nehru family being elected the president of the students’ union in 1927. They maintained that Richa was the first woman in the university’s history to do so.

Earlier, SCS had claimed that it was supporting Richa’s candidature. However, Richa said that she was an independent candidate, having formed a group called Students’ Friends.

Earlier, the candidatures of SCS nominees — Ajeet Singh “Vidhayak” and then Robin Singh Yadav — for the post of president were cancelled on one ground or other. In the last leg of the campaigning, the SCS had decided to support Richa apparently in a bid to keep ABVP at bay.

The ABVP’s presidential candidate, Sarvam Dwivedi, stood at the third position. The runner-up was Rajneesh Singh, also an independent candidate supported by the Pratiyogi Chhatra Sangharsh Samiti, which has taken up the cause of agitation against the Uttar Pradesh Public Service Commission.

The other elected office-bearers were Vikrant Singh (vice-president), Siddharth Singh “Golu” (general secretary), Sarvan Jaiswal (deputy secretary) and Jitendra Shukla (cultural secretary).

Earlier, only 33 per cent votes were cast by the students. The voting took place between 10 am and 2 pm and the counting started around 6.30 pm.

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