Hyderabad:The AISA-ASA-DSU-SFI-TSF alliance won four central panel posts in the University of Hyderabad (UoH) Students’ Union election, taking the president, vice-president, general secretary and joint secretary positions, a year after the ABVP-SLVD alliance won all six central posts.

The counting continued past 3 am on Wednesday. SFI’s Dilshada Raihan V.P. was elected president with 2,178 votes, defeating ABVP-SLVD’s Naresh Podishetti, who polled 1,727 votes, by a margin of 451. K. Naveen Kumar of the PDSU-MSF-Fraternity-NSUI alliance received 462 votes.

UoH named Banoth Sai of ABVP-SLVD as sports secretary. The university’s September 30 notification did not list a cultural secretary following a dispute over the contest. “We are happy because we defeated ABVP, the saffron wave that had almost swallowed our campus,” Dilshada said after her election.

Dilshada joined UoH for her Master’s in 2022 and has spent four years on the campus. Dilshada said she had earlier served as joint secretary of the Brennen College Union in 2022. “I come from Kannur, a place almost notorious in Sanghi books for its staunch communism,” she said.

ABVP-SLVD won the president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary, cultural secretary and sports secretary posts in 2025-26.

Dilshada attributed this year’s result to what she described as inactivity on student concerns during the previous union’s tenure and alleged attacks on fundamental rights, secularism and democracy. “We saw ABVP take credit for initiatives of the 2024-25 SFI-led Students’ Union,” she said.

According to the UoH notification, Korra Nithin Chauhan was elected vice-president, Pratik Sagar general secretary and Sidhant Sashwat joint secretary. Sidhant polled 2,056 votes against Sapthagiri’s 1,657 and Jusna’s 547, winning by 399 votes.

The presidential count also recorded 217 NOTA votes and 55 invalid ballots. The Joint Secretary count had 320 NOTA votes and 60 invalid ballots.

During the presidential debate, Dilshada raised issues including mess fees, internships, menstrual leave, disability access and campus safety, while Naveen focused on filling notified seats.

“The first issue will be the mess because food is the most basic issue,” Dilshada said after her election. “The Academic Council is also going to happen soon in October, so we will be fighting for menstrual leave and other policy-level issues also.”

She said her presidency would also focus on how students use the campus as a political and social space. “I want a campus which is violence-free and has space for dissent and questions,” she said.

The cultural secretary result remained undeclared after the overnight counting. Dilshada alleged that ABVP members entered the counting room after counting and that the Election Commission subsequently withheld the result. She said the alliance continued its protest outside the vice-chancellor’s office on Wednesday.

“We were told to wait, that the vice-chancellor would approve it and declare the result in the morning. But the cultural secretary’s result is still not declared, and we are continuing our protest in front of the VC’s office,” Dilshada said. “After 20 hours of counting, we cannot allow any recounting demand from ABVP now.”


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