It was an unusual election at the Delhi University this year as not only did the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) grab all the seats in the Students Union (DUSU) elections but so did left inclined All India Students’ Association (AISA) make a significant entry into the university breaking the long cherished stranglehold of Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). With a clear look at the voting statistics, it is evident that AISA, which has never been too active in DU, nibbled into a majority of the votes otherwise dedicated to NSUI. This intrusion is probably the reason that ABVP has managed to clearly wash out the Congress’ student wing.
While ABVP was confident of their complete sweep this year in the DUSU polls, the entry of AISA created an uncertain atmosphere on campus. Earlier, the competition for DUSU elections was between NSUI and ABVP only. Thus, NSUI since many years managed to keep a stronghold on the union.
However, this year with AISA entering Delhi University, by raising the issue of the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP), both NSUI and ABVP faced danger. It was even speculated that AISA could win a seat this time. But with NSUI still in the picture, that didn’t happen. Instead, as a setback to AISA, the anti-FYUP campaign contributed immensely to ABVP’s win.
Nonetheless, NSUI, which had campaigned aggressively this year across all campuses of DU, was left baffled. With NSUI’s win in Panjab University after several years, Congress leaders too were hopeful of replicating the stance in Delhi University. Thus, senior leaders from Congress had even campaigned for the student wing this time in the run-up to the DUSU elections. However, none of that worked for them as AISA grabbed the attention of all ABVP defectors.
If one sees the voting margins between NSUI and AISA, for all seats there is a clear difference of only 2,100-2,700 votes. If AISA had not been propped up this time because of their campaign against FYUP, these votes would have majorly gone to NSUI resulting in a completely different outcome. However, this result has set the base of AISA in DU almost permanently as they are now amongst the top three contenders for the DUSU elections.