DUSU 2023 polls: ABVP wins three posts; NSUI bags vice-president post

In the Delhi University Student’s Union Elections, RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidates won three out of the four posts and Congress-backed National Students' Union of India won one post out of the four central panel posts.

ABVP’s Tushar Dedha won the post of president with 23,470 votes, NSUI’s Abhi Dahiya won the Vice President post with 22,331 votes, ABVP’s Aprajita and Sachin Baisla have won the secretary and joint secretary posts with 24,534 and 24,955 votes respectively. All four of them are from the Department of Buddhist Studies.

Hitesh Gulia of NSUI had contested for the president’s post and came second with 20345 votes; Sushant Dhankar of ABVP came second for the vice-president post with 20,502 votes. Yakshna Sharma and Shubham Kumar of NSUI were runners-up for the secretary and joint secretary posts with 11,597 and 14,960 votes respectively.

A total of 24 candidates contested in these elections. Security was tightened in the North Campus area of Delhi University ahead of the counting of votes for the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections.

The main contenders are from Congress-affiliated NSUI, RSS backed ABVP, CPI(M)-supported Students' Federation of India (SFI) and the CPI(ML)-Liberation-linked All India Students' Association (AISA).

ABVP had won three of the four seats in the 2019 elections too. Then ABVP had won three posts–President, Vice-President and Joint Secretary, while the NSUI the secretary post.

The chief election officer for the polls, Chander Shekhar said the university recorded a voter turnout of 42 per cent. Around one lakh students were eligible to vote in the election. The voting percentage was higher than in 2019 when a turnout of 39.90 per cent was recorded, but it failed to surpass the nearly 11-year-high figure of 2018. The turnouts in 2018 and 2017 were 44.46 per cent and 42.8 per cent, respectively.

The last DUSU elections were held in 2019. Polls could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to Covid-19 and possible disruptions to the academic calendar prevented elections in 2022.

Elections are being held at 52 colleges and departments for the central panel and they were conducted through EVMs, while voting for the college union polls was through paper ballots. DUSU is the main representative body for most colleges and faculties. Each college also has its own students' union, elections to which are held annually.

DU college union polls

In the student union elections being held in various colleges, NSUI has won several seats in 17 colleges. In Sri Venkateswara, Ram Lal Anand, Aryabhatta and Motilal Nehru Colleges, NSUI has won all the five posts of president, vice-president, secretary, joint secretary and treasurer.

In Atma Ram Sanatan Dharma College (ARSD), NSUI won the posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary. In Sri Aurobindo College, the Congress backed-union won the president post; in Kirori Mal College, NSUI won president and secretary post; in Satyavati college, NSUI won posts of president, vice-president and secretary; in Shyama Prasad Mukherji College, the Congress students’ union won the posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary posts.

In Zakir Hussain College, in Ramjas College, Shri Ram College of Commerce and Miranda House, NSUI won the post of president; in Shyam Lal College, NSUI won president and treasurer posts.

In nine DU colleges, ABVP won all the main posts. These include Aditi Mahavidyalay College, Bhaskaracharya College of Applied Sciences, Rajdhani College, Ramanujan College, Shivaji College, Sri Aurobindo College(Morning); Shyam Lal college (Evening), Shaheed Bhagat Singh College and Shaheed Bhagat Singh College (Evening).

In Hansraj College, Vivekanand College, Campus Law Center, Bhagini Nivedita College, College of Vocational Studies, Deshbandhu College, Dyal Singh College (M), Dyal Singh College (E); Kirori Mal College, Law Centre 2, Motilal Nehru College (M), PGDAV (M), PGDAV (E), Ram Lal Anand College, Aryabhatta College, Ramjas College, Shyama Prasad Mukherji College, Shyam Lal College, Sri Aurobindo College (E), Swami Shraddhanand college, Zakir Hussain College, and Keshav Mahavidhyalay, ABVP won several posts.

SFI has increased its strength in several Delhi University colleges. The colleges where SFI supported candidates won include four colleges and departments in North Campuses, namely, SRCC, Miranda House College, Hindu College, and Department of Social Work.

Apart of these, SFI supported candidates registered victories in Zakir Hussain Delhi College (Morning), Zakir Hussain Delhi College (Evening), Swami Shraddhanand and Deen Dyal Upadhayay College.

"The victory in Zakir Hussain Delhi College is important as it shows that ABVP’s attempt to polarise the campus on religious lines has failed,” said Anamika K, who has been elected as the new Student Union Secretary in Zakir Hussain College.