Delhi University Students’ Union polls go off smoothly

In the days leading up to the election, strict guidelines for complaining had been implemented by the DUSU election committee to prevent any defacement

New Delhi

A student casts his vote at Ramjas College. (Sanchit Khanna/HT Photo)

The Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections went off smoothly on Thursday at a majority of the colleges, with a voter turnout of 39.45% recorded until the evening. Officials of the university said that they did not receive any complaint on defacement or violation of norms.

Chief election officer Raj Kishore Sharma said the final turnout will be available only on Friday, but given that the total voter turnout was 35% last year, this year has already seen better participation. Polling was conducted in two phases, from 8.30am to 1pm for day scholars and 3pm to 7.30pm for those taking evening courses.

However, two contenders for the posts, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), traded allegations of misconduct against one another.

A police officer said that polls went smoothly and no case was registered. “There were minor clashes but nothing major. Deployment was sufficient to ensure law and order was maintained and free and fair elections were conducted,” the officer said.

In the days leading up to the election, strict guidelines for complaining had been implemented by the DUSU election committee to prevent any defacement, but HT found flyers and hand-written posters of candidates strewn on the pavements and roads of the North Campus on the polling day.

Ruckus at Kirori Mal College

The NSUI accused the ABVP of vote manipulation and said “multiple incidents of malpractice were reported from Kirori Mal College, Hindu College, and Hansraj College”, in a statement issued on the day. It also demanded the immediate rejection of the ABVP’s presidential candidate’s nomination.

NSUI national president Varun Choudhary said, “Just as they manipulate elections outside, they are now trying the same inside DU. But the students of Delhi University will not tolerate this. They will answer the ABVP’s dishonesty with their votes.”

On the other hand, the ABVP alleged that the NSUI was responsible for instigating fights at Kirori Mal College and Hansraj College. It also denied the allegations of vote manipulation, which had surfaced after NSUI shared and circulated photos of blue ink marks highlighting the ABVP presidential candidate’s name on the EVMs.

Kirori Mal College principal Dinesh Khattar said, “When we had started, the EVMs were perfectly clean but within 15 minutes, we got to know that, somehow, ink had been smudged against some candidate’s name. We immediately removed the ink. However, following the same, some fights broke out between members of different student organisations and college authorities had to intervene to calm the situation down.”

Voter turnout improves

According to official data shared by DU, the total number of votes cast this year is over 155,000, which amounted to a 39.45% voter turnout until 5.45pm.

Among colleges that clocked improved voter turnout this year was Miranda House, where over 50% of its 5,000 students cast their vote.

Miranda House principal Bijayalaxmi Nanda said, “Last year, only 300 students had cast their votes. This year, the voter turnout has been incredible. We had given a holiday on the day of voting last year but this year, we held classes, which might be a reason as well.”

Nanda said that there was some defacement, as pamphlets were strewn on the road in front of the college. “We got it immediately cleaned up. All pamphlets and flyers were collected and sent for composting.”

Among others, Kirori Mal College reported a 32% voter turnout, which was similar to last year’s; Shaheed Bhagat Singh College recorded a voter turnout of 77.32%, up from 57% recorded last year and Ramanujan College recorded 63.53% turnout, up from 20% recorded last year

DU officials said around 280,000 students were eligible to vote in all.

Meanwhile, Delhi Police said it deployed more than 600 personnel, with 160 of them equipped with body cameras, alongside CCTV surveillance and drones to ensure smooth polling.

‘Greener’ elections

Many students noted that for the first time in years, the university witnessed a “clean and green election”. Last year, the declaration of the results had been delayed by about two months, after the Delhi High Court had taken a note of the massive defacement caused by candidates and their supporters during the DUSU election.

“Last year, the roads in the North Campus were full of posters and pamphlets and there was constant defacement in the days leading up to the election. While there are still some flyers on the roads this year, it is a massive improvement from last year,” said Abhishek (goes by first name), a second-year student from Ramjas College.

Miranda House first-year student Shweta Chowdhury said, “This is indeed worth the hype. I do not know about the previous years, but I am experiencing an election of this magnitude for the first time and I was certainly very excited.”