ABVP repeats 2002 performance, tops Delhi University polls

NEW DELHI - Making a spectacular comeback, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh associate, virtually swept Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) polls Saturday, bagging three of the four seats at stake.

The defeat of Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI), which dominated the DUSU polls 2003 to 2007, ironically came on the day the party was felicitating Sonia Gandhi for being elected the party chief for an unprecedented fourth term.

ABVP’s Jitender Chaudhary, Priya Dabas and Neetu Dabas bagged the posts of president, vice-president and secretary of DUSU, respectively. The NSUI managed to win only one post, that of joint secretary which went to Akshay Kumar.

Repeating its earlier best performance of 2002 when it had won three of the four seats, the ABVP stormed back to power this time by riding over its campaign against the semester system, and demanding more hostel facilities and exclusive coaches for girls in the Metro.

Post-graduate student of the university’s Buddhist Studies department, Jitender Choudhary became the president by defeating NSUI’s Harish Choudhary, a student of SGBT Khalsa College, by a margin of 1,943 votes. Jitender polled 9,259 votes in the elections that saw low turnout.

According to the officials, Communist Party of India leader D. Raja’s daughter Aparajitha, who contested the president’s post as the All India Students Association (AISA) nominee, polled just 2,999 votes.

On the other hand, arch rival NSUI managed to get the post of joint secretary as its candidate Akshay Kumar won the seat with a slender margin of 581 votes. He got 6,831 votes, a DU official announced.

Priya Dabas defeated the NSUI’s A. Vardhan by 1,518 votes in the vice-president poll and got the support of 8,679 students.

Neetu Dabas, who won by the highest margin of 4,495 votes the DUSU secretary post, defeated the NSUI’s Deepika Derhwal.

Last year, an ABVP-backed independent candidate had won the post of DUSU president after disqualification of official candidates of both NSUI and ABVP. The ABVP had won the posts of vice-president and secretary.

Altogether, 41 contenders were in fray this year for the four posts of president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary.

According to the university officials, only 40 percent students turned out to vote, which defied the election office’s expectation of a substantial turnout as the number of “freshers” had increased this year.

The elections were conducted peacefully with both south and north campuses heavily guarded and intensively patrolled by policemen.

ABVP’s last candidate to win the president’s post was Nupur Sharma, who won handsomely in 2008, while all the other posts were held by NSUI candidates.