The margin of the ABVP’s triumphant candidate for the post of the DAV (PG) College students’ union was not impressive as the rebel candidate who contested the election after being denied ticket substantially cut into the traditional ABVP votes.
NSUI, the arch rival of ABVP, came third in the contest. Aryan Group which had a record of good performance in the previous years’ election finished a distant second for the post of general secretary this year.
An ABVP sympathizer said that denying ticket to Sanjay Tomar could have proved dear for the union. “Tomar is known as hard-working student leader who works throughout the year, taking up the students’ grievances and exerting himself fully to redress them.
Rahul Kumar won just because he represented the ABVP. However, the thin margin with which he won made Tomar the real winner. If the ABVP leaders fail to imbibe lessons from this year’s election and continues to foist candidates, devoid of real roots in the students’ psyche, the winning streak might be thwarted in the coming years,” he said.
According to the students, rampant factionalism within the college unit of NSUI might have made it taste drubbing again. “Things happened this way in the previous elections too.
It would be difficult for it to emerge out of the cycle of defeat unless the leadership props up candidates who strike chords among all the warring factions, winning hearts of all by means of hard work and sincerity in championing the students’ cause. The leaders must be allowed to emerge from amongst the students who work for them, with them, all the year round. Foisting candidates from above at the behest of the party to which the union is affiliated would never effect a turnaround in the elections for the union,” an NSUI supporter said.
Aryan Group leader Sachin Thapliyal said that they were saddened by the result. “We worked hard to perform well. Our roots among the students are deep too. Yet, in spite of it, the students turned their faces away from us. We must delve into it and seek the correctives so as to enable the group to emerge triumphant in the next year’s election,” he added.