DUSU elections on September 18, counting next day: DU

The Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) annual elections are the nursery for budding politicians of all hues eager to make a mark in the state and national-level political arena.  This year, the polls will be held on September 18, and the counting of votes next day.  According to a notification issued by the university on Thursday, the last date for filing nomination papers has been fixed as September 10.

According to the notification, the last date for receipt of nomination papers along with a demand draft of Rs 500 and affidavits is September 10 till 3 pm. Scrutiny of nomination papers will be conducted at 3:15 pm the same day, followed by publication of the list of duly nominated candidates by 6 pm. Candidates will be allowed to withdraw their nominations till noon on September 11, while the final list of candidates will be published by 5 pm the same day. Students attending day classes will vote between 8:30 am and 1 pm, while those attending evening classes will vote from 3 pm to 7:30 pm.

The university had earlier appointed Raj Kishore Sharma from the Department of Chemistry as the chief election officer and librarian Rajesh Singh as the chief returning officer for the 2026-27 polls.  The appointments, notified on August 5, marked the beginning of preparations for the annual elections. The vice-chancellor made the appointments in his capacity as patron of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU).

The announcement has given student groups a formal timeline to turn their recent campus mobilisation into election campaigns, with organisations expected to intensify outreach across colleges in the coming weeks. The recent protests at Jantar Mantar, which centred on issues concerning the National Testing Agency (NTA), admissions and access to education, have provided a backdrop to the election preparations.

The DUSU polls are among the country’s most closely watched student elections and traditionally witness intense contests between the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and All India Students’ Association (AISA). The upcoming polls will be closely watched against the backdrop of last year’s results, when the ABVP won three of the four central panel posts. Over the past decade, the ABVP won the DUSU president’s post six times, while the NSUI secured it twice, in 2017-18 and 2024. Elections were not held for two years during the COVID-19 pandemic. With the dates now announced, student organisations are expected to intensify preparations and finalise candidates and campaign strategies ahead of the September 18 contest.

The DUSU polls are not just the largest stage for student politics in India. It has long been regarded as a “nursery” for national politics and a battleground for shaping perception. Winning here is important, but equally critical is the image a candidate builds — a signal of who might emerge as a future political leader.

Over time, the DUSU polls produced some of India’s most prominent leaders, including the late Arun Jaitley, Sushma Swaraj, Lalit Makan, Ajay Maken, Vijay Goel, Alka Lamba, and Parvesh Sahib Singh Verma. Their rise from campus campaigns to national prominence underlined DUSU’s role as a stepping stone to larger political careers.

In last year’s DUSU elections, BJP-backed ABVP clinched three posts, while Congress’s NSUI won one post. ABVP’s Aryan Mann won the President post, Deepika Jha got the Joint Secretary post, and Kunal Choudhary bagged the Secretary post. NSUI clinched the only vice-president post.

The first elected president of DUSU was Gajraj Bahadur Nagar. He was elected for the President post in 1954 and remained in office till 1955. He obtained LLB degree from DU.

Following his stint in student politics, Gajraj entered into mainstream politics, he won the assembly election from the Mewla Maharajpur constituency of Faridabad in 1977. He later became the Minister of Food and Supplies in the Haryana Cabinet.  DUSU’s first president died at the age of 73 in 2001.