ABVP wins president, VP and joint secy posts in DUSU election, NSUI takes secretary
The results from the Delhi University Student Union election were declared on Thursday night after counting of votes were suspended for a short while. Ankiv Baisoya won the president’s post.
The RSS-backed Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) made a comeback in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections, winning three out of four posts on the panel, including those of the president, vice-president and joint secretary. The Congress’ student wing NSUI had to settle only for the secretary’s post.
Last year, both the student groups had won two seats each.
Terming the victory as a prelude to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the victorious ABVP candidates began celebrating as soon as the results were announced. “The results indicate the electoral mood of the young voters. The youth is with the BJP,” said Ankiv Baisoya, the newly elected DUSU president.
The results, declared a day after polling on Wednesday, were marred by unusual delays and allegations and counter-allegations as members of all political student groups alleged ‘tampering’ of the electronic voting machines (EVMs). The counting was halted three times and was finally suspended by the university’s election commission in the afternoon. However, it resumed around 5:30pm after all the candidates reached an agreement.
The new panel comprises ABVP’s Baisoya, Shakti Singh and Jyoti Chaudhary, as president and vice-president and joint secretary, respectively, and the NSUI’s Aakash Chaudhary as secretary. The NSUI had won the top two positions last year.
The newly-formed alliance of the Left-backed AISA and Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) youth wing CYSS could not win on any positions. The CYSS this year was contesting students elections after a gap of two years. “We have got around 8,000 votes. We demand a high-level judicial enquiry in the poll mismanagement and EVM,” said AISA DU president Kawalpreet Kaur.
In a statement, CYSS said that they are encouraged to have won several positions in college panels.
The winning margins of Baisoya and Singh were 2,000 and 8,000 votes in this year’s elections that had recorded a 44.5% turnout, highest in the last 11 years. Out of around 60,000 votes, 27,739 opted for NOTA (None of The Above).
The NSUI, however, alleged that EVMs were ‘tampered’ with the election officers at the behest of the ABVP. “We have come to know that the data of seven EVMs is missing. We will raise this issue with the administration on Friday,” Chaudhary said. The NSUI will hold a press conference on Friday where Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken will address the issue.
The DU election committee, however, said that they carried out a “free and fair” election and asked the NSUI members to check the EVMs. “Though there was a glitch in one EVM, but the committee has maintained high standard of discipline and conducted free and fair election,” said DU chief election officer VK Kaul.
“The EVMs in question is not of the Election Commission as no such machines had been allotted or issued to DU… It seems that DU has procured these machines privately. A detailed report in this regard will be sent subsequently,” said Manoj Kumar, chief election officer (EVM).