DU marches right, JNU goes left, again

NEW DELHI: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, swept the Delhi University Students’ Union

NEW DELHI: The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the right-wing Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, swept the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections, winning three of the four top posts.

HT Image

The results of the Delhi University polls, considered a stepping stone to national politics, were declared on Saturday.

ABVP’s Amit Tanwar was elected president, Priyanka vice-president and Ankit Kumar Sangwan, the secretary. The National Students’ Union of India’s (NSUI) Mohit Garid won the joint secretary’s post.

The Congress-backed group won a seat for the first time since 2013. The ABVP enjoyed a clean sweep in both those years.

“This ABVP win is a comment against anti-national activities happening across the country,” said Tanwar, whose party fought on the agenda of nation first.

The vote shares were ABVP 34.5%, NSUI 24.7 % and AISA 11.8%. The voter turnout this year was 36.9% — the least since 2010. A total of 45,476 students cast 1,78,216 votes for the four posts.

Further, the winning margins between the candidates were lower compared to last year. Tanwar won 16,547 votes, beating NSUI’s Nikhil Yadav by 4,690 votes. It was the highest margin among all posts.

Priyanka won 15,592 votes to beat NSUI’s Arjun Chaprana by 2,455 votes to the vice-president’s post. Sangwan won 15,518 votes to beat NSUI’s Vinita Dhaka by 1,685 votes.

Similarly, NSUI’s Garid won 16,526 votes to beat ABVP’s Vishal Yadav by 2,466 votes.

Last year’s highest margin was 7,570 votes when ABVP’s Sunny Dedha beat Garima Rana, the vice-presidential candidate of Aam Aadmi Party’s student wing Chatra Yuva Sangarsh Sansthan (CYSS). This year, CYSS did not contest.

The left-leaning All India Students Association (AISA), the youth wing of Communist Party of India-Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML) came third in all posts.

Senior BJP leader and cabinet minister Arun Jaitley congratulated the ABVP candidates.

“Congrats to ABVP. #DUSU verdict is triumph of Nationalism. Youth have reposed their faith in constructive politics (sic),” tweeted BJP president, Amit Shah.