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Countdown for DUSU polls begins, 16 candidates in fray
New Delhi
New Delhi
Delhi University’s (DU) north campus wore a festive look on Thursday with several students’ outfits taking out rallies across the campus to introduce their candidates in this year’s students’ union polls. Sixteen candidates are in the fray for four DUSU posts—president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary—this year, of which only five are women.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which had won three posts last year, has fielded a first-year law student and bodybuilder Akshit Dahiya for the post of the president. The students’ group has named Pradeep Tanwar for the post of vice president, Yogit Rathi for secretary and Shivangi Kharwal for joint secretary.
Treading cautiously after the controversy last year over their presidential candidate, Ankiv Baisoya, the ABVP has selected only DU graduates as their candidates this year. Baisoya admission was cancelled after his graduation degree was found to be forged.
Ashish Chauhan, National General Secretary, ABVP, said, “All the four candidates have experiences ranging from academic distinctions to outstanding sporting achievements, embellished with their perennial campus activism. Their experiences would be definitively conducive to creating a student-friendly DUSU.”
Congress’ student wing, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), which had won only the secretary’s post last year, has fielded Chetna Tyagi, 19, a BA (programme) student at Shaheed Bhagat Singh College (evening) for the post of president., Ankit Bharti for the post of vice president, Ashish Lamba for secretary and Abhishek Chaprana for the post of joint secretary.
NSUI national spokesperson Ruchi Gupta said, “NSUI’s DUSU panel reflects our commitment to women empowerment, social justice and equal opportunity across class and caste for an equal and egalitarian DU.”
The Left-affiliated All India Students’ Association (AISA), which has emerged as third most sought after students’ group in DU in the last three years, has fielded Damini Kain, who is pursuing MA in Political Science from Hindu College, for the post of the president. AISA has named Aftab Alam for vice president, Vikas Kumar for secretary and Chetna for joint secretary.
Meanwhile, the NSUI on Thursday alleged that Zakir Hussain College (evening) cancelled the candidature of their two candidate citing short of attendance. The NSUI members also held a protest at the college against the move.
Masroor Ahmad Beg, principal of the college, said, “The college’s election committee has examined their records and their attendance was found to be less than 75%.” As per the Lyngdoh committee guidelines it’s mandatory for the candidates to have at least 75% attendance.
