Bhubaneswar, October 2026 : Union Home Minister and senior BJP leader Amit Shah on Saturday described the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) performance in Odisha’s student union elections as a “stern response to anti-national forces”, asserting that the results reflected young people’s support for the ‘Nation First’ ideology.
In the elections held on October 15, the RSS-affiliated ABVP won in eight of Odisha’s 13 state universities and secured victories in several colleges across the state.
Congratulating the organisation’s newly elected office-bearers in a post on X, Shah said the victories in Panjab University, Delhi University and now Odisha conveyed a message about the ideological preferences of the country’s youth.
He said the results demonstrated that young people were aligned with the ‘Nation First’ ideology rather than forces that, according to him, spread falsehoods, confusion and chaos. Shah described the outcome as a stern response to anti-national forces, apparently referring to the ongoing agitation against the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Although student union elections in Odisha are not formally contested along party lines, political parties support candidates through their affiliated student organisations. The ruling BJP backed ABVP candidates, while the opposition Biju Janata Dal (BJD) supported candidates of the Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD). The Congress backed candidates from the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI).
Odisha ABVP claimed its candidates won eight president’s posts, eight vice-president’s posts, 10 secretary’s posts and 11 assistant general secretary’s posts across the 13 state universities.
ABVP state secretary Diptimayee Pratihari said the organisation secured all positions on the panel at Utkal University. At Ravenshaw University, ABVP candidates won all posts except that of president, she claimed.
Meanwhile, BCJD candidates won the president’s post in five universities and the general secretary’s post in one university. The NSUI secured the general secretary’s position in another university.
However, BCJD president Ipsita Sahoo offered a different assessment of the wider results, claiming that BJD-backed candidates had won approximately 55 to 60 per cent of college union elections across Odisha.
She cited victories at prominent institutions, including Rama Devi Women’s University and Ravenshaw University, and added that BJD-supported candidates had performed well in most women’s colleges in the state.
The results highlighted the competing claims of student organisations backed by the state’s major political parties, with ABVP emphasising its university-level victories and BCJD pointing to its claimed performance across college unions.
