ABVP wins 3 posts in DU students' union polls, NSUI gets 1

NEW DELHI: The RSS-affiliated ABVP on Friday won three posts, including that of the president, in the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) polls, while the Congress-backed NSUI bagged the secretary's post.

Celebrations broke out outside the counting centre in Kingsway Camp with supporters dancing to 'dhol' beats and rose petals being showered on the winners.

The winners wearing garlands then proceeded to the varsity's Arts Faculty, from where they will take out a victory march.

Ashwit Dahiya of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) defeated National Students Union of India (NSUI)'s Chetna Tyagi for the president's post by a margin of over 19,000 votes.

The posts of vice president and joint secretary were won by ABVP's Pradeep Tanwar and Shivangi Kharwal by a margin of 8,574 and 2,914 votes, respectively.

NSUI bagged the secretary's post with its candidate Ashish Lamba defeating ABVP's Yogi Rathee by a margin of 2,053 votes.

"ABVP fielded Yogi Rathee who was college president of Ramjas College when the violence took place in 2017. The students have given a clear mandate against violence," NSUI's Akshay Lakra said.

The voter turnout in DUSU polls on Thursday was recorded at 39.90 per cent, over four percentage points down over last year.

Last year, the election saw a 44.46 per cent voters turnout.

The polling for four positions of the DUSU ended amid allegations of EVM malfunctioning. Sixteen candidates, including four women, were in the fray and 52 polling centres were set up.

Over 1.3 lakh students were eligible to cast their vote. As many as 144 EVMs were used for students' union polls and 137 were used for college union polls.

The Left-backed All India Students Association (AISA) expressed happiness over improvement in their vote share.

"Our Joint Secretary candidate Chetna got over 10,000 votes. The party's vote share has improved since last year. We are happy about it," said an AISA functionary.