ABVP, NSUI, Left announce candidates for DUSU elections

All major student organisations announced their candidates on Friday for the upcoming Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) elections, setting the stage for a contest for the four key posts. 

Seven candidates are in the fray for president, five for vice-president, four for secretary and four for joint secretary. 

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) fielded Yash Dabas as its presidential candidate against Vijay Shankar Meena of the National Students' Union of India (NSUI).  The All India Students' Association (AISA) and Students' Federation of India (SFI) alliance nominated Ananya Raturi for president, Akshat Shikhar for vice-president, Stanzin Deskyong for secretary, and B Parijaat for joint secretary. 

The ABVP nominated Ishu Maurya for vice-president, Riya Chhawadi for secretary, and Lakshya Raj Singh for joint secretary. ABVP president candidate Dabas, from Delhi's Kanjhawala, is currently pursuing studies in the Department of Buddhist Studies. He is an international-level tennis player who has participated in ITF competitions in Spain, Australia and Serbia. Also, he represented the University of Delhi at university-level competitions, the student organisation said on Friday. 

Maurya, who is from Varanasi, is pursuing law at Campus Law Centre and has been associated with ABVP since 2021. He has served as president of the Satyawati College (Morning) unit and co-convener of Students for Seva. Chhawadi, a fourth-year BA Programme student at Sri Aurobindo College, is an inter-college-level basketball player, while Singh is pursuing law at Campus Law Centre. According to the ABVP, Singh represented India in handball at the Asian Games and World Championship. 

The NSUI fielded Meena for president, Vir Chatrath for vice-president, Namrata Chaudhary for secretary and Gopal Choudhary for joint secretary. The organisation, in a post on X, said its campaign would focus on putting "student interests first" and building a "prosperous, safe and better" Delhi University. 

The AISA-SFI alliance described its panel as representing "alternative politics" and said it would seek to build a student-led DUSU while opposing "money and muscle in politics". 

Raturi, an AISA member, has been involved in student movements on issues including sexual harassment and accountability on campus, according to the alliance. Shikhar, also from AISA, is a student of Motilal Nehru College. He was associated with protests at Jantar Mantar, it said. 

Deskyong, a first-year MSc Mathematics student at Hindu College, previously served as vice-president of the Ramjas College Students' Union, while Parijaat, a first-year MA English student at Hansraj College, has been involved in literary and theatre activities. 

The announcements came after the Delhi University Chief Election Officer released the list of candidates following scrutiny and withdrawal of nominations on Friday. Officials said the final lists are provisional and subject to further verification. 

Voting for the DUSU elections will be held on September 18, with polling for day classes from 8:30 am to 1 pm and evening classes from 3 pm to 7:30 pm. Vote counting is scheduled for September 19.