ABVP sweeps DUSU polls 2019, wins 3 seats, NSUI bags one

NEW DELHI: The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) dominated the keenly-contested Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) election 2019 results of which were declared on Friday evening. While the ABVP managed to win three out of four crucial posts, the Congress-liked NSUI bagged just one seat.

ABVP won President, Vice President and Joint Secretary posts out of the four key posts and the Congress' student wing National Students' Union of India (NSUI) bagged the Secretary post.

ABVP candidates Akshit Dahiya, Pradeep Tanwar and Shivangi Kharwal got the maximum votes for the post of President, Vice-president and Joint-secretary, respectively. The lone winner from NSUI was Aakash Choudhary, who managed to trump his opponent for the post of DUSU secretary.

ABVP`s presidential candidate Akshit Dhaiya received over 29,685 votes against 10,646 votes garnered by Chetna Tyagi of the NSUI. For the post of vice-president, Pradeep Tanwar of the ABVP defeated his closet rival Ankit Bharti by a margin of 8,574 votes. Tanwar received 19,858 votes.

For the DUSU secretary`s post, NSUI`s Ashish Lamba defeated ABVP`s Yogit Rathee by a little over 2,000 votes. Lamba received 20,934 votes against Rathee`s 18,881 votes.

Reacting to the results, NSUI state president Akshay Lakra said, the ABVP had fielded Rathee, Ramjas College president during the violence there in 2017. "The students have given a clear mandate against violence," Lakra said.

For the joint secretary's post, the ABVP`s Shivani Karwal defeated the NSUI`s Abhishek Chaprana by 2,914 votes. Karwal won 17,234 votes against Chaprana`s 14,320 votes.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated ABVP for its sweeping victory in the DUSU polls. "I congratulate all workers of ABVP for the grand victory in Delhi University student union elections. This victory is not only proof of the unflinching belief in nationalism of our youth but also a proof of how committed new India is towards nation-building,'' Shah said.

This year, 16 candidates were in the fray for the four DUSU posts -  president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary- which form the central panel, and are elected for one year. 

The RSS-affiliated ABVP had fielded Akshit Dahiya for the post of DUSU president, Pradeep Tanwar for vice-president, Yogit Rathee for general secretary and Shivangi Kherwal for joint secretary.

The NSUI, the student wing of Congress party, pitted Chetna Tyagi for the post of president, Ankit Bharti for vice-president, Ashish Lamba for secretary and Abhishek Chaprana for joint secretary.

Around 40 per cent of the 1.3 lakh eligible students voted in the elections to the DUSU on Thursday.

After a delay of almost two hours, the counting of votes for the Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) election began around 8:30 AM on Friday. The election for student body representatives was held across 52 polling stations set up in various colleges and faculty departments.

Voter turnout was recorded at 39.90 per cent out of around 1.3 lakh students and faculty members who were eligible to cast their vote. The turnout dropped by four per cent in 2019, as in 2018, 44.46 per cent voter turnout was recorded. 

According to DU Chief Election Officer Ashok Prasad, votes were counted at the Community Hall of the Police Lines in northwest Delhi`s Kingsway Camp.

Last year, the election saw a 44.46 per cent voter turnout. The polling for four positions of (DUSU) ended amid allegations of EVM malfunctioning. Sixteen candidates, including 4 women, were in the fray and 52 polling centres were set up.

As many as 144 EVMs were used for students' union polls and 137 were used for college union polls. Polling began on Thursday morning colleges at 9.30 am and ended at 1 pm, while in evening colleges it commenced at 3 pm and ended at 7.30 pm.

The voter turnout recorded across 43 morning colleges was 39.69 per cent, almost four notches down from last year's figure of 43.8 per cent. In 2017, the overall voting percentage was 42.5 per cent while it was 36.9 per cent in 2016. Last year, the ABVP had won three posts while the NSUI won one post.

Hot and humid weather, holidays in colleges and disenchantment of students with the politics were cited as reasons for the lower turnout. Thursday was a declared holiday for students on account of it being election day, so students did not turn up to cast their votes, said some student leaders.

There were long queues to cast votes as Law Faculty, Miranda House and Ramjas College. In the North Campus, almost 400 police personnel were deployed to prevent any untoward incident, police said.

The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said its members won the college union polls in 35 colleges and the Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) said it won in 22 colleges.