Academia & Politics: The Favourite Destinations Of JNUSU Presidents

Last Updated:November 07, 2025, 22:05 IST

As the results for the JNUSU elections were announced on Thursday, the Left Unity retained its stronghold with a clean sweep

Left Unity's Aditi Mishra (president, SFI), K Gopika (vice-president, SFI), Sunil Yadav (general secretary, DSF) and Danish Ali (joint secretary, AISA) celebrate their victory in the JNUSU elections, in New Delhi on November 6, 2025. (Image: PTI)

The favourite pursuits of the presidents of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) remain activism, academia, and politics. From the late Sitaram Yechury to Kanhaiya Kumar and Aishe Ghosh, the tradition of turning campus leadership into public life continues to define JNU’s political culture.

As the results for the JNUSU elections were announced on Thursday, the Left Unity retained its stronghold with a clean sweep. The All India Students’ Association (AISA), Students’ Federation of India (SFI), and Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF) bagged all four seats, and Aditi Mishra was elected president as she won by 449 votes. The outgoing president Nitish Kumar was also from AISA.

A good number of presidents, elected in the last couple of years, who have not entered politics have moved to academics. Geeta Kumari, elected in 2017-18, is serving as the research assistant at the Sectoral Policy Group, History, at the India Centre. N Sai Balaji was the JNUSU president during 2018-19 and has been working as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science since January 2024. Meanwhile, he served as AISA President during 2019-23.

Those Who Joined Mainstream Politics

Yechury, who served as the JNUSU president in 1977-78, was among the most prominent names that appear when there is talk of JNUSU presidents making it into mainstream politics.

The latest in the list is Dhananjay—the first Dalit JNUSU president who served the post in 2023-24. Just a couple of months since he was elected, the man has already started the journey towards the Bihar assembly. He is contesting the Bihar assembly election on a Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation [CPI(ML) Liberation] ticket from the Bhore constituency in Gopalganj. The party has got 20 seats as part of the INDIA bloc—Mahagathbandhan. The fate of Dhananjay will be revealed on November 14—the counting day.

Before him, it was Aishe Ghosh who served as the JNUSU president between 2019 and 2023. She was elected in 2019 and continued on the post as the elections did not take place due to the Covid-related restrictions. Currently serving as the State Secretary of the SFI Delhi, Ghosh has tried her luck in the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls as a CPI(M) candidate from Jamuria.

The election of Kanhaiya Kumar as the JNUSU president and subsequent events in 2015-16 have emerged as the turning point in JNU’s campus politics. His arrest, controversies, and the sedition case made him popular. He has joined politics full-time now and is in charge of the Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Congress.

He started his political journey with the Communist Party of India. The party also made him contest the 2019 Lok Sabha polls from Bihar’s Begusarai. He lost the election. In 2021, he switched to Congress.

From the corridors of JNU to the streets of electoral politics and classrooms across the country, the journey of its student leaders underlines how the campus continues to nurture public voices. Mishra’s victory extends the Left’s long-running hold on the campus—and, like many of her predecessors, she steps into a role that has often served as a springboard to activism, academia, and politics.

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