Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), affiliated to Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), swept the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections by winning all four seats for the second time in a row.
The ABVP candidates won with a thumping majority, handing out a severe drubbing to their rival student wings of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Congress.
While the Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) performed credibly even though it failed to make it to the winning podium, the AAP’s students wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) failed to open its account in DUSU.
The ABVP bagged all the four posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary defeating NSUI candidates with a margin of over 4,500 votes each in the fiercely-fought contest. The ABVP had bagged all four top posts of DUSU last year also.
The CYSS, which made its debut at the campus polls this year, stood at the third position as per the overall vote count.
The polling was held in two phases on Friday and it saw a turnout of over 43 per cent. A total of 1,35,298 students were eligible to exercise their franchise.
Satinder Awana, presidential candidate of the ABVP won by a margin of 6,000 votes. Chief Election Commissioner for DUSU polls, DS Rawat said Awana bagged 20,439 votes defeating his rival Pradeep Vijayran of NSUI who got 14,112 votes.
“I thank the supporters of ABVP for trusting us again. DU students know who works for them so they have voted for us again. Now, my focus would be to fulfill promises made to the students,” Awana told The Pioneer.
ABVP’s Sunny Dedha won the vice-president’s post by securing 19,671 votes. He defeated Garima Rana who was the only CYSS candidate to secure the second position by polling 12,101 votes. Rana lost to Dedha by a clear margin of 7,570 votes.
Anjali Rana of the ABVP secured 14,944 votes and won the post of secretary while her nearest rival, NSUI candidate Amit Sehrawat polled 10 334 votes.
ABP candidate for the joint secretary post Chhatrapal Yadav won with 16,243 votes, despite rumours that he had withdrawn his nomination.
NSUI candidate Deepak Choudhary got the second-highest 10,178 votes while the left-wing affiliated All India Students’ Association- candidate Abhinav Kumar polled10,045 votes, leaving behind the CYSS candidate Hitanshi Chauhan who had just 8,205 votes. Margins for the posts of secretary and joint secretary were 4,610 and 6,065 votes respectively.
Testing their electoral fortunes were nine candidates for the post of president, eight each for the post of vice-president and joint secretary and ten nominees for the post of secretary.
The issues that topped the agenda of various parties contesting this year included their stand on the Choice Based Credit System, Room Rent Control Act, accommodation for all, demand for a compact campus, opening of new colleges and infrastructure development, among others.
DUSU is the representative body of students from most colleges and faculties of the university. The polls have been keenly contested over decades and are seen as a stepping stone to party politics in the national arena.
Celebrations broke out with bursting of crackers and loud cheering at the counting venue in Kingsway Camp as the results were announced. The ABVP supporters lifted their candidates on their shoulders and posed for pictures, flashing the victory sign.
After the results were out Union Minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who was DUSU president in 1974, also congratulated ABVP on its victory in the prestigious polls.
“Congratulations to students of Delhi University and ABVP on winning the DUSU elections & making a clean sweep by winning all the four seats,” he tweeted.
BJP’s national president Amit Shah also congratulated the ABVP. “Heartiest congratulations to all Parishad karyakartas on the clean sweep in DUSU polls. A victory of ideology #ABVPRocks,” he tweeted.