As JNU gears up to hold student body polls, a look at what former presidents are doing

This year, voting for the JNUSU election will take place November 4, the university’s Election Committee announced on Thursday. Results will be declared two days later, on November 6. According to the tentative schedule for the 2025-26 JNUSU polls, the election process will begin on October 24 with the publication of the tentative list of voters, and a daylong window for corrections.

The Indian Express tracked JNUSU presidents over the past decade to see where they are now and how the meaning of political success has evolved over the years

Nitish Kumar
2024–25, AISA
Now: PhD Scholar, Centre for Political Studies, JNU

At 26, Nitish Kumar, the current JNUSU president, embodies the continuity of JNU’s Left legacy. Born into a modest OBC family in Bihar’s Araria district, he grew up amid the agricultural hardships of rural life, his father a farmer, his mother a homemaker.
He recalls first “witnessing the sinister nature of communal fascism” during his school years in Forbesganj.

After completing his BA in Political Science from BHU, he joined JNU in 2020 at the height of the pandemic. “The pandemic exposed how fragile public education had become. We had to organise, even if it was online.”

Kumar wishes to pursue electoral politics even beyond his time at JNU. “Obviously, we want to continue in politics and we will continue in politics,” he said firmly. Balancing research and activism, he added, “I have a PhD of two-and-a-half years left. Yes, I want to continue in politics. We will see how the party organises itself.”

On whether JNU still produces strong leaders, he argued, “If we look at politics only from an electoral point of view, then yes, people talk about Kanhaiya. But there are many who continue to work politically in different ways not just the president, but also secretaries, vice-presidents, councillors. Politics is larger than Parliament.”

Dhananjay
2023–24, AISA
Now: CPI-ML Candidate, Bhore Assembly Seat (Bihar)
When Dhananjay became JNUSU president in 2024, he also became the first Dalit to hold the post in nearly two decades. The youngest of six siblings from Gaya, he is the son of a retired policeman and a homemaker. “When you come from a background like mine, politics isn’t a career choice it’s a responsibility,” he had said during his campaign last year.

Now a PhD student in Theatre Studies, he is contesting the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections from Bhore on a CPI-ML Liberation ticket. His ascent, party colleagues note, symbolises the return of class- and caste-conscious leadership from the Left’s student wing to mainstream politics.

He began his journey as a student councillor at Ambedkar University Delhi, later rising through AISA’s ranks. “Our politics was never about individual success,” he once said in a campus meeting. “We carry forward a collective history of people’s struggles that don’t always make the headlines.”

Dhananjay is the third former JNUSU president in recent years to move directly into electoral politics, following Aishe Ghosh and Kanhaiya Kumar.

Aishe Ghosh
2019–23, SFI
Now: State Secretary and All India Joint Secretary, SFI; PhD Scholar, JNU

For 31-year-old Aishe Ghosh, JNU was both a classroom and a crucible. “I came to JNU in May 2016 and my journey with SFI started there. I entered electoral politics in 2017, contested twice in my department, and then in 2019, ran for president and won.”

Her presidency coincided with the nationwide protests against fee hikes and the Citizenship Amendment Act. “Those movements shaped me,” she said. “During those times, you realise that student politics isn’t separate from national politics, it’s the training ground for it.”

On returning home to contest the 2021 West Bengal Assembly elections from Jamuria, she added, “I didn’t see it as a jump but a continuation of what we did on campus speaking up for education, jobs, women’s safety.”

Now completing her PhD, she remains committed to political life. “I look forward to entering politics full-time but not only through elections. Through organisational spaces too. Parties look for people who can organise, mobilise, bring people together.”

Reflecting on visibility, she said, “Of course, Kanhaiya got media attention, but many of us continue to work politically in quieter ways. You may not see us on TV every day, but we’re in the field.”

N. Sai Balaji
2018–19, AISA
Now: Political Researcher, Parliamentary Office of CPI-ML; Full-time Activist

“See, there’s this misnomer that politics only means contesting elections,” said Balaji, 33, who now works on parliamentary research for the CPI-ML. “The person who contests is just the face. Behind that is an entire structure: people drafting speeches, analysing bills, handling constituency issues. That too is political work.”

After completing his PhD in Diplomacy and Disarmament, he taught for a brief period before turning full-time to activism. “Opportunities come and go; commitment doesn’t,” he said.

He rejects constant comparisons with older stalwarts. “To compare everyone with Yechury is unfair. Comrade Yechury had a unique context: the Emergency, the rise of the CPI(M). We’re in a different time. Our generation will create its own space.”

Balaji sees politics as a continuum: “Whether it’s Sucheta De organising contract workers, Dhananjay contesting in Bihar, or me helping the parliamentary wing we’re all part of the same process.”

Kanhaiya Kumar
2015–16, AISF
Now: In-charge, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Congress

Kanhaiya Kumar’s name remains synonymous with a turning point in campus politics. His 2016 arrest in a sedition case made him a household figure and drew national attention to JNU. “I performed plays for IPTA and began reading Marx; that’s how politics entered my life,” he had told The Indian Express in 2015.

After joining the CPI in 2016, he contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections from Begusarai but lost. “Winning or losing doesn’t define a struggle,” he said later. “The question is are you still in the fight?”

He switched to the Congress in 2021 and was appointed in-charge of NSUI two years later. “The student movement gave me language; Parliament gave me perspective,” he remarked at a Delhi youth event last year. “Politics, to me, is still about speaking for those who can’t.”

The Indian Express reached out to Kumar’s office for a comment but received no response.

Ashutosh Kumar
2014–15, AISA
Now: Assistant Professor of Political Science, Lalit Narayan Mithila University, Bihar

Ashutosh Kumar, 38, spends his mornings teaching political theory and his evenings writing for AISA publications. “I’m connected to the party, though not as a full-timer,” he said. “My contribution is through intellectual work through the teachers’ union, through mentorship.”

Reflecting on his journey, he said, “Not everyone who leads JNUSU has to end up in Parliament. Our job is to create awareness, to organise. Some of us do it from classrooms, some from campaigns.”

He sees fame as circumstantial: “In Kanhaiya’s time, the sedition case created a special situation. Fame came from confrontation. But commitment that’s quieter, slower.”

Akbar Chawdhary
2013–14, AISA
Now: Political Consultant with Prashant Kishor’s ‘Bihar Badlav’ Campaign

When Akbar Chawdhary submitted his PhD on Amartya Sen, he thought he’d remain in academia. Two years at Aligarh Muslim University changed that. “I realised that most political scientists discuss democracy but rarely participate in it,” he said.

That realisation pushed him into campaign work. After stints with Prashant Kishor in West Bengal and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s teams in Uttar Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, he now works on Kishor’s ‘Bihar Badlav’ initiative.

“JNU was, is, and will remain one of the most relevant platforms for nurturing leadership,” he said. “Even outside politics, its influence runs deep. When a voter in Bihar speaks fondly of a JNU-trained district magistrate, that says something about what this campus represents.”

Lenin Kumar
2012–13, Democratic Students’ Federation (DSF)
Now: Faculty Member, University in Pune

Lenin Kumar’s tenure marked a rupture in JNU’s Left politics. Expelled from SFI in 2012 for criticising the CPI(M)’s support of Pranab Mukherjee’s presidential bid, he went on to form the Democratic Students’ Federation, which swept the JNUSU polls that year.

Now a university teacher in Pune, Lenin balances academics with quiet political engagement. “I believe fifty percent of those who do student politics in JNU stay in politics, the other half move away,” he said. “In my case, I had responsibilities. I don’t come from a privileged background; I had to work and sustain my family.”

Across these narratives, one pattern stands out, while JNU continues to produce politically conscious leaders, their paths have diversified far beyond electoral politics.

Some, like Dhananjay, have stepped directly into elections. Others, like Balaji and Lenin, have channelled their politics through research and teaching. For Aishe Ghosh and Nitish Kumar, activism remains both a calling and a career.

As Nitish puts it, “If we look at politics only from an electoral point of view, then yes, people talk about Kanhaiya. But there are many who continue to work politically in different ways.”

Politics, as Balaji said, “isn’t a sprint; it’s a lifetime of showing up.”