Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has announced the names of its top nine shortlisted candidates who will lead the pre-election campaigns for the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections. These candidates were shortlisted by a seven-member committee consisting of top ABVP leaders. While the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and All India Students’ Association (AISA) have not yet officially declared any plans regarding their campaigns, ABVP has already won a few brownie points among students.
National secretary of the union Rohit Chahal on Tuesday said, “There are nine candidates shortlisted at the moment. They will be going from college to college Wednesday onwards, spreading our basic agendas before we release the manifesto. The students are Pravesh Malik, Ashutosh Mathur, Rohit Rana, Mohit Nagar, Satender Chaudhary, Arun Tanwar, Sunny Dedha, Kanika Shekhawat and Bhavna Rana.”
The first thing that these candidates will be doing is interacting with students and enlightening them on the role that ABVP played in getting the four-year undergraduate programme (FYUP) rolled back, said Mohit, a first-year student of MA Buddhist Studies at Arts Faculty. “We first want to tell the students that ABVP lives up to its word and then bring up university issues that we will be dealing with. One of the issues is the need for more colleges and hostels in the university,” said Mohit.
While the nine names have been shortlisted, the final list of four candidates for the post of president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary will only be decided on September 5, which is also the last date for the withdrawal of nomination papers. The DUSU election is scheduled for September 12.
Meanwhile, NSUI has not yet shortlisted candidates or started a pre election campaign thus trailing behind in terms of fan following. Spokesperson Amrish Ranjan Pandey said, “We have started man-to-man interactions but haven’t shortlisted candidates. We have asked all those who want to be candidates to participate in this man-to-man interaction and work for the party. Based on their performance, we will shortlist later.”