नवीनतम
DUSU elections: ABVP wins President and two key posts
NEW DELHI [Maha Media]: The RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) staged a comeback in the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) elections after one year, clinching three posts, including president.
ABVP’s Aryan Maan emerged victorious in the presidential race, defeating Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI) candidate Joslyn Nandita Choudhary by over 1600 votes in the high-octane contests.
Kunal Chaudhary of the ABVP bagged the secretary's post with 23,779 votes, defeating NSUI's Kabir. Similarly, ABVP's Deepika Jha defeated Lavkush Bhadana to win the joint secretary's post in the central panel.
The wins marked a revival of the RSS-affiliated students’ party in the influential student body after a brief domination by the NSUI.
On the other hand, NSUI candidate Rahul Jhansla defeated ABVP's Govind Tanwar with 8,792 votes to win the vice president's post.
This year, the alliance of the left-affiliated, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students' Association (AISA), failed to win any post.
In 2024, the NSUI won the president's post after a long gap of seven years, along with the joint secretary's post. The ABVP secured the vice president's post and retained the secretary's position, maintaining its presence in the union.
About DUSU polls
The voting for the DUSU elections was held on Thursday, in which a 39.45 per cent turnout was recorded, a small increase over last year's 35 per cent.
The polling, which was held in two shifts, saw the contest being between the ABVP and the Congress-backed NSUI. It saw about 2.75 lakh eligible students cast their votes in 50 affiliated colleges. Voting was held at 52 centres with 195 booths, where 711 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were deployed.
The NSUI’s Choudhary belongs to the postgraduate department of Buddhist Studies, while the ABVP’s Maan is from the Department of Library Science.
The SFI-AISA alliance had fielded Anjali, a student of Indraprastha College for Women, as its candidate for president.
This year, 21 candidates were contesting for the four main posts – President, Vice President, Secretary, and Joint Secretary. Of these, nine contestants were competing for the president's seat, while the remaining 12 are contesting the other three positions.
During the polling and counting of high-octane student elections, Delhi Police deployed over 600 of its personnel, including 160 with body-worn cameras. Drones and CCTV surveillance were also pressed into sensitive areas.
This election, the university witnessed “clean and green elections”, with the authorities strictly enforcing the Lyngdoh Committee's anti-defacement guidelines.
Allegations of rigging
The DUSU election was also marred by controversies, with both the NSUI and ABVP accusing each other of rigging polls in some colleges.
The ABVP accused incumbent DUSU President and NSUI leader Raunak Khatri of involvement in a scuffle that allegedly left a student injured in North Campus. They alleged that Khatri’s supporters manhandled a student outside Kirori Mal College, causing her to fall and get injured.
Similarly, the NSUI claimed that it had received complaints from several colleges that blue ink marks were found next to the names of ABVP candidates on the EVMs. It said the move was aimed at influencing the voting pattern by misleading voters. The organisation alleged that the well-planned effort is part of ABVP's electoral strategy and is against democratic values.
NSUI's candidates, Choudhary and Lavkush Bhadana, visited the college campuses and interacted with the students on the issue.
Soon after the poll results were out, NSUI national president Varun Choudhary posted on X, saying the party “fought well in this odd election -- not just against the ABVP, but against the combined force of the DU admin, Delhi govt, central govt, RSS-BJP & Delhi Police.”
“Yet thousands of DU students stood firmly with us, and our candidates fought well. Best wishes to Rahul Jhansla, newly elected DUSU vice president from the NSUI panel, and to all other office bearers who won. Win or loss, NSUI will always fight for common students, their issues & to save DU. We will only grow stronger.”
