Months after breaking ranks with their parent party CPI-M, the students associated with the former SFI unit of JNU have formally formed a new student organisation with an aim to provide a "progressive alternative".

Democratic Students' Federation, as it has been named, gives a new identity to the disbanded unit of SFI and brings together students who empathise with their position under a new wing.

It all began in July last year when the JNU students of CPI-M's students wing Students Federation of India (SFI) took a contradictory stand from their parent party over its support to Pranab Mukherjee for the presidential post.

The students fought the subsequent JNUSU election under the banner of SFI-JNU and won a morale boosting victory when its candidate Lenin Kumar was elected the President of the students union, otherwise dominated by the extreme-Left AISA.

The decision to formally organise under a new name was taken after deliberations at the first unit conference of SFI-JNU over the last two days, and the name of the organisation was decided through a referendum by participating students from JNU, DU, Ambedkar University, as well as Jamia Milia Islamia.

The interim programme adopted by the members made it a point to underline the fact that it is crucial to ensure the independence and autonomy of student organisations and their freedom to voice opinions independent of their parent parties.

The programme "identified the shackles of political parties as the biggest reason for the stagnation in the student movement in India," read a statement from the office bearers of the new organisation.

It also pledges to fight for "a progressive alternative to neoliberalism, for social justice and secularism and build resistance against the attacks on democratic rights, privatisation and commercialisation of education and imperialism".

The DSF with Anagha Ingole as its president and JNUSU President Lenin Kumar as its convenor also resolved to fight for the JNUSU's Charter of Demands.