UoH Student Union gets first woman president

NOTA alters winning equations

Quite interesting as it may seem, the NOTA (None Of The Above) norm, introduced for the first time in the student union elections of University of Hyderabad (UoH), has completely altered the equations and marred the chances of some of the hopefuls. Many students marked a tick in the NOTA column for all the posts, thereby rejecting the candidates put by various student bodies like- SFI, ABVP, NSUI and UDA.

SFI bagged two key posts - president, secretary- along with the joint secretary post. While ABVP won the cultural and sports secretary posts, a nominee of United Democratic Alliance became the new vice president.

For the first time in the history of the University, a girl student, P Sirisha, has become the president of University Students Union. A fourth-year student of Integrated MA in Economics, Sirisha has been an SFI activist and participated in many agitations in the last two years. She has polled 1,197 votes and defeated her nearest ABVP rival with a margin of 79 votes.

Greatly elated over the victory, Sirisha told The Hans India that she never dreamt of becoming the first woman president of the student body at the varsity. Outlining her priorities, Sirisha said-

“I would strive hard to ensure safe campus, accommodation for all girl students, no additional financial burden on the students this year”. The university land shall not be given to any non-academic institution, hereafter and I would oppose any move by the administration, she made it clear. P Manikantha of UDA becomes the vice president winning with a lead of 37 votes. Sandeep Kumar is the new general secretary. He got 1174 votes and the victory margin was 58 votes. Aditya Harish becomes new joint secretary and M Swati and Krishna Chaitanya become cultural and sports secretaries.