The ABVP sweeped the DUSU polls, winning 3 Central Panel posts, including that of the President while the NSUI managed to bag the post of vice-president.
New Delhi: Tushar Dedha of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won the post of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) president as the RSS-affiliated students union bagged three central panel posts while Congress’ student wing National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) won the remaining one in today’s DUSU elections.
ABVP’s Tushar Dedha defeated his closest rival NSUI’s Hitesh Gulia by a margin of 3,115 votes. Dedha got 23,460 votes and Gulia 20,345.
However, NSUI managed to grab the post of vice-president as the Congress student wing’s Abhi Dahiya edged out ABVP’s Sushant Dhankar by a margin of 1,829 votes. Dahiya received 22,331 votes
ABVP’s Aparajita and Sachin Baisla won the posts of secretary and joint secretary, respectively.
While Aparajita defeated NSUI’s Yakshana Sharma by a margin of 12,937 votes, Baisla defeated the Congress student wing’s Shubham Kumar Chaudhary by a margin of 9,995 votes.
The counting of votes for the DUSU’s central panel posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary concluded on Saturday evening. The election was held on Friday.
Here a brief look at the winners of DUSU polls:
DUSU President Tushar Dedha
Tushar Dedha, who joined the ABVP in 2015, is currently pursuing Masters in Buddhist studies after completing his graduation from Satyawati College where he won the election for college cultural coordinator in 2016. He was also an executive council member at DUSU.
DUSU Vice-President Abhi Dahiya
NSUI’s Abhi Dahiya, who bagged the post of Vice President, is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Buddhist studies.
DUSU Secretary Aparajita and Joint Secretary Sachin Baisla
ABVP’s Aparajita and Sachin Baisla won the posts of Secretary and Joint Secretary, respectively, by a significant margin.
While Aparajita defeated Congress-affiliated NSUI’s Yakshana Sharma by a margin of 12,937 votes, Baisla defeated its Shubham Kumar Chaudhary by a margin of 9,995 votes.
Aprajita hails from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and completed her BA (Honours) degree in history from Dyal Singh College. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Buddhist studies.
Sachin Baisla graduated from Ramanujan College. He is pursuing a Masters degree in Buddhist studies.
Congrats pour in from BJP top brass
Meanwhile, congratulations poured in from top leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party for winning candidates of the ABVP.
Congratulating the winning candidates of ABVP, Union minister Kiren Rijiju wrote on X: “#ABVP sweeps #DUSU. Rahul Gandhi campaigned in Delhi University Students Union Election which helped ABVP to increase its vote share! Congratulations to all the Winning Candidates of ABVP, it’s cadres as well as all the wishers!.”
BJP MP and party youth wing president Tejasvi Surya posted, “Congratulations to Team ABVP on winning the DUSU elections. A clear indication of the ideological positions that our students and young are taking in the country. Vande Mataram.”
BJP National President wrote: “Inspired by the ideals of Swami Vivekananda, @ABVPVoice
has always kindled a flame of nationalism and selfless service in the hearts of our youth.”
“I congratulate all the karyakartas of ABVP for their emphatic victory in #DUSUElection2023. This triumph shows the ubiquitous acceptance of the ideology of ‘nation first’ among our young generation, who will shape our nation’s tomorrow,” Nadda said in a post on X.
NSUI thanks supporters
The NSUI thanked its activists and supporters for the victory in the post of vice-president.
In a post on X, it said, “Congratulations to Abhi Dahiya for securing victory in the post of Vice President in the Delhi University students’ union elections. We would like to thank all the supporters and activists of the NSUI This victory belongs to you. We pledge to keep raising the voice of common students across the nation.”
DUSU Elections 2023
The DUSU elections have always seen a direct fight between the ABVP and the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI). The ABVP won three of the four seats in the 2019 elections as well.
The DUSU elections were last held in 2019. The polls could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 while possible disruptions to the academic calendar prevented their conduct in 2022.
Twenty-four candidates were in the fray for the four posts this year.
Chander Shekhar — the chief election officer for the polls — said the university recorded a voter turnout of 42 per cent. Around one lakh students were eligible to vote in the election.
While the voting percentage was higher than in 2019 when a turnout of 39.90 per cent was recorded, it failed to surpass the nearly 11-year-high figure of 2018.
The turnouts in 2018 and 2017 were 44.46 per cent and 42.8 per cent, respectively.
Elections at 52 colleges and departments for the central panel were conducted through electronic voting machines (EVMs) while voting for the college union polls was on paper ballots.
For the students, core issues ranged from fee hikes to the lack of affordable accommodations, enhanced security during college fests and menstrual leaves.
The ABVP, Congress-affiliated NSUI, CPI(M)-backed Students’ Federation of India (SFI) and the CPI(ML)-Liberation-linked All India Students’ Association (AISA) had fielded candidates for all four central posts.
The DUSU is the main representative body for most colleges and faculties. Each college also has its own students’ union, elections to which are held annually.
(With PTI inputs)