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Ambedkar University student elections on Wednesday
New Delhi
New Delhi
Ambedkar University of Delhi will hold its second student union elections on Wednesday. Polling for the post of councillors and class representatives will take place between 9am and 4pm at the three campuses in Kashmere Gate, Karampura, and Lodhi Road.
This is the first time the election committee has been formed by students as per the university’s constitution on elections.
“Since the university was established in 2008, the formative years were the years of expansion and consolidation,” said a university official, requesting anonymity. The constitution for student elections was approved by the authorities in 2018 — the year when the first students’ union elections were held.
The students’ council in AUD is different from that in other universities. An election committee member said the election is held in two phases. Phase I involves election of councillors and class representatives across different programmes. Phase II involves the elected councillors choosing a treasurer and six members for the central coordination committee (CCC), which will be responsible for carrying out the duties of the council.
“This model is different from other universities, as per the vision of the first Student Council, which wanted to implement a horizontal representative model, rather than a hierarchical one,” the university said.
The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) had won most posts last year. “Space crunch and lack of hostels is one of the major issues. We are campaigning to have safe space for freedom of expression on campus,” said Sruti MD, a former council member and SFI secretary of Kashmere Gate campus.
Dhanpal Singh, an MPhil student at Karampura campus and AISA activist, said “We are campaigning on course, centre and campus based issues like delay in scholarship, necessary canteen facilities, and lack of space. There is no students’ union office in Karampura campus.”
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) unit, which was formed two months ago, is also fielding candidates for BA programmes. “Clean walls, plastic-free campus, and girls common rooms are some of our campaign promises. We are batting for a wall of democracy for dedicated space for graffiti,” said Badal Prakash, ABVP’s AUD unit president.
