ABVP won three posts in the central panel of the Delhi University Students' Union
The Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections results have been announced. RSS's ABVP was elected in three central panel posts while Congress's NSUI emerged victorious in one. ABVP won the posts of president, vice president and joint secretary while NSUI secured secretary post. NSUI's Sunny Chhillar was defeated by ABVP's Ankit Baisoya in the presidential election with a margin of 1744 votes while Shakti Singh, also from ABVP, was declared as the vice president after he won with a margin of 7673 votes.
ABVP candidate Jyoti Choudhary has won the post joint secretary and NSUI candidate Akash Choudhary was elected in the post of secretary.
In the presidential election, Mr Baisoya was polled 20,467 votes when NSUI's Sunny came runner up with 18,723 votes.
In vice president election, Shakti Singh was elected with 23,046 votes while Leena of NSUI was polled 15,000.
Choudhary, the lone winning candidate of the NSUI, alleged that fair elections were not conducted and data of seven EVMs were missing. The Chief Electoral Officer in Delhi Thursday clarified that the EVMs used in DUSU elections have not been issued by the Election Commission and it seems to have been procured privately.
The four posts of president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary form the central panel, which is elected for one year.
As the DUSU results were announced, celebrations broke out with bursting of crackers and loud cheering at the Kingsway camp counting venue. The supporters lifted the victorious candidates on their shoulders and posed for photos flashing the 'victory' sign.
NSUI activists were seen protesting in the afternoon after glitches reported in the the electronic voting machines
Counting for the DUSU polls was resumed today hours after it was suspended due to "fault in EVMs" leading to a uproar among the contending outfits. Following a glitch in the EVMs, the Congress-affiliated NSUI demanded fresh polling, while the RSS's student wing the ABVP demanded resumption of counting. Later, all candidates came to an agreement on resumption of counting.
DUSU is the representative body of the Delhi University students from most colleges and faculties.
Apart from DUSU, which is an umbrella council, each college has its own students' union to which separate elections are held.
While the battle for DUSU has mainly been the contest between the NSUI and ABVP for years, the Left-affiliated AISA and Aam Aadmi Party's CYSS have entered into an alliance and are also vying for the central panel posts this time.
Amid heavy police presence and some last-minute wooing of voters, DUSU polls were held yesterday with a voter turnout of 44.46 per cent.
Polling took place at 52 centres in the colleges.
Though Delhi University officially does not recognise any political outfit, students who contest the polls are backed by different parties.
The polls have been keenly contested over decades and are seen as a stepping stone to mainstream politics. Union minister Arun Jaitley, Congress leader Ajay Maken, former Delhi BJP chief Satish Upadhyay, Union minister and BJP leader Vijay Goel are some of the prominent politicians whose journey into mainstream politics began from DUSU.
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