Over 1 lakh students will vote today in Delhi University and Jawaharlal University polls

NEW DELHI: The students of Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will cast their vote on Friday to elect their students representatives.

NEW DELHI: The students of Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will cast their vote on Friday to elect their students representatives.

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Approximately 1,23,241 voters will be voting in 51 colleges to select the president, vice-president, secretary and general secretary of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU).

In JNU, approximately 9,000 students will be voting to select the president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary of their union.

The DU elections are conducted by the university authorities, but the JNU polls are managed by the students. Both the universities will go to polls on Friday, the results may be declared on Saturday for DU and on Monday for JNU.

In DU, it is a three-way fight between the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the National Students Union of India (NSUI), the student wing of Congress, and the All India Students Association (AISA), the youth wing of the Communist Party of India Marxist Leninist (CPI-ML).

For the past three years, ABVP has been winning the DUSU polls, so this time their slogan is ‘ABVP Once More’. NSUI and AISA are going with ‘Vote for Change’.

Kumar’s All India Students’ Federation (AISF) may have decided to sit out the JNU students’ union (JNUSU) elections but they are giving outside support to the alliance between All India Students’ Association( AI SA) Students Federation of India (SFI). The Left alliance has been formed to avert ABVP from winning a seat. Last year, ABVP had won a joint secretary position in JNUSU.

At JNU, the presidential debate was held late Wednesday night.

Students say that a lot depends on what the candidate speaks during the debate and a question answer session is followed by the debate. “Last year Kanhaiya Kumar was relatively unknown but his speech in the presidential debate was so good that he became an overnight favourite of many,” said a student.

Wednesday’s debate saw the candidates raising issue of Dalit scholar Rohith Vemula’s alleged suicide, sedition row, nationalism and BR Ambedkar’s vision.

In DU, the outfits fight polls on students’ issues like hostel accommodation, university special bus services and students’ safety.