After biting the dust in the recently held state Assembly elections including the big jolts in Maharashtra and Haryana, the Congress party’s student wing the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on Monday bagged two posts in the keenly contested Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) elections. The Congress-backed student body is making the claim on the presidential post after a period of seven years.

However, the celebrations, which are usually accompanied with dhols, colours and loud music, was replaced by a rather quiet one even though the members of the Congress student wing chanted slogans for the winning candidates, even as the counting began early at DU’s North Campus under tight security with the police deploying three-layer barricading at the counting centre, ensuring law and order.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP) also secured two posts including Vice President and Secretary.

This win will provide a big push to the Delhi Congress, as the state Assembly poll is scheduled early next year. After the results were announced, both the party’s winning candidates thanked their supporters and flashed the victory  signs.

The NSUI’s presidential candidate Rounak Khatri won the student body elections against the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s (ABVP)Rishabh Chaudhary by over 1,300 votes. It also secured the Joint Secretary post as Lokesh Choudhary won against ABVP’s Aman Kapasia and Students’ Federation of India’s (SFI)Sneha Aggarwal.

However, NSUI’s Yash Nandal failed to retain the post of vice-president this year, it was won by ABVP’s Bhanu Pratap Singh. The RSS backed student outfit also clinched the Secretary position as its candidate Mitravinda Karanwal emerged victorious, defeating NSUI’s Namrata Jeph Meena and SFI’s Anamika K.

The DUSU results were scheduled to be announced on September 28, a day after the elections took place. However, it was delayed due to a Delhi High Court order which had stalled the declaration of results until the defacement caused during the election campaign was cleaned.

The elections for the four central posts in DUSU were contested by 21 candidates. Out of these, eight contested the post of president, five for vice-president, and four each fought the contest to become secretary and joint secretary. The Left-aligned coalition of the All India Students’ Association (AISA) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) also contested the elections but its candidates failed to secure any seat even as the university continues to be dominated by ABVP and NSUI.

While the ABVP held the majority in the 2023 elections, the dynamics have changed this time around. The last time the NSUI had won the President post was in 2017 while it held the Joint Secretary post in 2016.

Strict rules were implemented on the result day to prevent celebrations on campus post-results by burning firecrackers or using dhols, amid the university issuing an affidavit for all the candidates, asking them to refrain from doing so.