NSUI delays taking charge after opposition threats

After a clean sweep in this year's DUSU polls, the National Students' Union of India refused to assume charge today after threats of retaliation from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists who have been suspecting foul play in the elections, HT reports.

After a clean sweep in this year's Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) polls, the National Students' Union of India (NSUI) refused to assume charge on Monday after threats of retaliation from the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists who have been suspecting foul play in the elections.

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ABVP activists had resorted to violence after the results for DUSU polls was announced on Saturday which resulted in lathicharge by the police.

"We were going to take charge on Monday morning, but were told by the proctor's office to delay it by a day or two since ABVP had threatened to cause further ruckus," said Amrishranjan Pandey, spokesperson NSUI.

While NSUI maintained that this retaliation by ABVP was a case of sour grapes, DUSU's election office claimed that there was no reason to doubt the transparency of the process.

However, even as the election office has decided on a lottery system to elect the joint secretary, it also stated that NSUI had celebrated their complete victory, prematurely.

"It is very wrong on the part of NSUI to celebrate the victory of their joint secretary -Raveena Chaudhary - even before the results were decided. But as far as ABVP's defeat is concerned, we have videographed everything and there has been no tampering with the electronic voting machines," said CS Dubey, chief election officer, DUSU.

Dubey also added that a report had been sent to the vice chancellor to form a committee to investigate into the violation of code of conduct.

While ABVP had threatened to shut down colleges in North Campus on Monday, college principals maintained that disruption was minimal.

"About 10 activists came to college and requested for classes to be suspended. We just stopped classes for 10-12 minutes to avoid any untoward happenings," Rajendra Prasad, principal, Ramjas College.