43 per cent turnout was registered in the DUSU elections held on Tuesday where students from 51 colleges casted their ballot to choose the four key central panel posts of President, Vice-President, Joint Secretary and Secretary in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU). A total of 126 ballot boxes had been placed for the DUSU panel, of which eight were taken for counting in each round.
By around 2.30 pm today, the final results marked a stunning comeback for the Congress-backed National Students Union of India (NSUI) by winning the President and the Vice-President posts. The RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – which was dominant in the union for the last few years, had to settle with the Secretary and Joint Secretary positions.
The main contenders for the DUSU President post were the ABVP’s Rajat Choudhary, Rocky Tusheed of the NSUI, Parul Chauha of the AISA and independent candidates, Raja Choudury and Alka.
After registering a thumping win, NSUI in an official statement said,
“This mandate shows that students throughout the country have rejected poisonous & divisive ideology of RSS.”
INC MLA and AICC Communications In-charge, Randeep Surjewala, via a video, congratulated the NSUI for reflecting the confidence of the students in Congress and their philosophy,
Raj,Pb & now resounding victory of @nsui is a rejection of false promises of 'Acche Din' of Modiji.
Youth for Change will change Modi Govt. pic.twitter.com/ijOvtJ2YFg— Randeep Singh Surjewala (@rssurjewala) September 13, 2017
The election this year turned into a multi-cornered fight since it also witnessed the rise of another student group, the radical left AISA, which has found many supporters among students after the scuffle at Ramjas College in February this year.
The University Grant Commission had made it compulsory for every Delhi University college to stream live Prime Minister Modi’s speech on Vivekananda live a day before the polls. The NSUI had kicked a storm arguing that the order from the UGC effectively indicated that Modi had jumped in the DU students’ body polls.
“The PM’s address is a day before the election. On that day, moral code of conduct will be implemented on the campus. It is not only unethical for the PM’s speech to be broadcast in DU, it would also be a violation of the poll-code. NSUI will protest this unfair decision, which seeks to benefit the RSS student wing ABVP in the DUSU polls. The speech can be streamed anywhere, but not in a poll-bound University. Modi has effectively jumped into the DUSU campaign to help ABVP,” Neeraj Mishra, NSUI National Media coordinator was quoted by CNNNews18.
While the UGC had asked 40,000 institutions across the country to telecast the “life-changing” speech, the NSUI specifically objected to the speech being streamed in Delhi University in view of the polls scheduled for 12 September.
The counting of votes for the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections began today, at a community hall near Kingsway Camp in New Delhi amid tight security and video recording.
In his recent tweet, Office of Rahul Gandhi congratulated the NSUI for their stellar performance and thanked the DU Students for reposing their faith in Congress ideology,
Congratulations @nsui on a stellar performance & Pres win in DUSU! Thank students of DU for reposing faith in Congress ideology #NSUIWinsDU https://t.co/amUF6owutt
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 13, 2017