On 9th November 2024, the Election Commission announced the results of the Young India Fellow (YIF) elections, and PhD and Masters by-elections. Elections for YIF representatives were held later as YIF students follow a cycle different from the undergraduate (UG) timeline. Additionally, YIF students are typically at Ashoka for only a year, starting August. The Masters and PhD elections, on the other hand, aimed to fill the three vacant seats in both councils.
These seats were left unoccupied after an insufficient number of candidates participated in elections earlier this year. Only two candidates were elected to the YIF council, one to the Masters Council, and none to the PhD Council. The elected candidates were the only ones that stood.
YIF COUNCIL CANDIDATES LIST
TOOFAN | ||
1 | Afshan Nisar | YIF 25 |
2 | Anshif Ekkadan | YIF 25 |
MASTERS COUNCIL CANDIDATES LIST (By-Elections)
INDEPENDENT | ||
1 | Keshav Kumar | MA Economics |
Afshan expressed “disappointment in the low number of candidates who stood for the YIF Council election” and said “he plans to create activities that will engage students and ensure they have a voice.” Meanwhile, Keshav intends to tackle issues with the condition of the graduate lounge and shuttle service, and believes he can “resolve these issues at a faster pace through the SG.”
Voter Concerns
The Edict also interviewed voters from the YIF and PhD cohorts. According to Shweata Hegde (YIF’25), “sometimes it feels like they’re not represented enough.” There are YIF-specific issues, particularly pertaining to their schedule. Shweata feels “very booked and scheduled” and “unable to participate in culturals or societies.” Jayprakash Prajapati (PhD’2023), highlighted that PhD students too get “very less time for themselves.”
Rutuja Chavan (YIF’25) had other issues to add, particularly regarding the campus life of YIF students, who reside in RH 5 on campus. “There’s been a lot of mould in [their] rooms, [...] there's a lot of weird mushrooms growing out of the mirrors near the sinks.”
Gayathri Nair (MSc’25), member, HoR, detailed other scheduling problems with the “unusual” lab timings, which are “according to their experiments.” “The lab shift is actually from 9 am to 9 pm [or] [...] 9 pm to 9 am.” These twelve hour shifts are harder as they “don’t have access to any of the residences,” and also face problems with shuttle timings.
She further spoke about the lack of heating in TDI rooms. Some people “want to live on campus [as] that makes life easy.” Gayathri said she has not brought up any of these issues so far. Despite being a council member, she admitted to “hardly ever” attending meetings or feeling any “connection” with committee proceedings. The Edict has since learnt that Gayathri has been suspended from the HoR for missing consecutive meetings. The Governing Code prescribes a two-week suspension for non-recused house members “missing three consecutive non-emergency meetings.” According to the HoR’s attendance records, available on the SG Public Information Drive, Gayathri has attended one out of the seven meetings held so far.
Election Reach?
The Election Commission, according to Teshi Sharma (UG’25), Chief Election Officer, is unaware of what issues YIFs face. Teshi, in conversation with The Edict acknowledged that “YIFs do not face the same issues as the undergraduate body at least till they moved into this campus" and admitted that “before this year, most of the issues faced by them did not resonate with the undergraduate student body”.
Shweata only “vaguely remembers” that the AUSG elections were happening, while Rutuja had “no clue what these elections [were] about.” PhD students that The Edict reached out to regarding the elections declined to comment, referring to their lack of knowledge about the elections.
Jayprakash told The Edict how there are “too many emails”, and hence communication is missed. Shweata opined that the low participation is due to the campaigning period coinciding with the experiential learning module, part of the YIF curriculum. This module involves two weeks of working on projects that are either self-designed or with external organisations, which causes around “30% of students”, according to Shweata to “not stay on campus.”
The Edict also learned that the YIF students have separate committees which handle specific issues. The Learning and Engagement Committee, Alumni Committee and Academic Committee, all function through elected representatives. Shweata said, in fact, that these elections generated “a lot more buzz.” Campaigns took place, were scheduled into their timetables and there were regular interactions with students. The elections themselves took place on 20th August 2024.
Electoral Procedure and Voter Turnout
The AUSG elections followed a standard procedure of candidates registering and campaigning, followed by them voting for their respective cohorts. Teshi said that the quorum “depends on the student body,” adding that “[the AUEC] tries to meet 35%” of its size.” Last year, the turnout for the Master’s elections was 35%, and for the PhD elections 43.48%. This year, the turnout was significantly higher, at 53.26% for the YIF elections and 41.79% for Masters.
Commenting on the voter turnout, Muhammed Razin (UG’27), one of the Election Commissioners, said students at Ashoka vote based on “vibes” and so “the way you campaign matters a lot.”
He believes that the Masters cohort is “the most inactive.” “The only link we have with them [masters students] is through emails and social media” According to Razin, “Ashoka is a bubble,” and since masters students live outside, they don’t benefit from perks like “proximity with the admin”, among many others which causes council members to have “a bigger burden.”
The Election Commission also opened applications for cohorts other than the UG student body. However, according to Razin, “there has been zero response” from the other cohorts over various attempts. He added, “We do not conduct elections without opening inductions for the Election Commission.” Currently, all five election commissioners are from the UG student body.
He also highlighted how the Presidential and Vice-Presidential candidates have just been UG students. There are 3164 UG students enrolled in Ashoka for the year 2024-25 and hence “UG students overshadow the Masters in terms of numbers.” Razin feels that “there is nothing that is stopping them from standing [...] the only thing that puts them away is the statistics. How can you win an election when there are these many other students [...] you don't have any close contact with?”
[Edited by Madhumitha GI and Jyotsna Sidharth]
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