ABVP sweeps early DUSU trends
More than 1.51 lakh students set out to elect a new central panel for the Delhi University Students' Union on Friday, under a security blanket of over 2,000 security personnel after the Delhi High Court called out violence and lawlessness during the campaign.
Voting opened at 8.30 am for day-class students, running till 1 pm, with evening-class students casting ballots from 3 pm to 7.30 pm. Across the university, 830 ballot units and 281 control units were deployed at 52 colleges and voting centres, with students required to carry their college identity cards to vote. Counting is scheduled for Saturday at the Multipurpose Hall of the University Sports Stadium in North Campus, with EVMs sealed and moved under separate security arrangements once polling closed. The university is witnessing a three-way battle between ABVP, NSUI and the AISA-SFI alliance for the four central panel posts of the president, the vice president, the secretary and the joint secretary.
The presidential field alone included seven names, Ananya Raturi, Ashmit Kumar, Ejaj Mansuri, Samarth Beniwal, Sameer Kumar, Vijay Shankar Meena of NSUI and Yash Dabas of ABVP, with ABVP looking to build on its 2025 showing, when it won three of the four central panel seats.
Turnout through the day tracked patterns seen in recent years, when overall participation has typically settled between 30 and 35 per cent, with individual colleges such as Miranda House regularly posting far higher numbers, over 60 per cent in 2025, on the strength of dense on-campus voting drives. The day was not without disruption. At LC-2 (Morning), three students allegedly attempted to vote using fake ID cards. Security personnel caught one of them on the spot and recovered the counterfeit card from her, while two others managed to leave before they could be detained. Preliminary questioning of the student who was caught reportedly revealed she identified herself as belonging to NSUI. Given the seriousness of the matter, action is being initiated against the detained student, the two who fled, and the person who allegedly brought them to the polling centre, with ABVP demanding immediate action from the administration and the proctorial team, who assured necessary steps would follow, after which ABVP workers called off their protest at the spot.
Early results trickling in from individual colleges through the day pointed to a strong ABVP showing. The organisation swept all four seats at Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar College, won three seats, president, vice president and secretary, by a wide margin at Keshav Mahavidyalaya, and took the president and secretary posts along with two central councillor seats at Shyama Prasad Mukherjee College. At SRCC, ABVP candidates won the president and secretary posts along with both councillor seats.
