AFTER eight years, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) registered its strong presence in the Delhi University by winning top three posts in DUSU elections. This victory with impressive margin not only stunned the political pundits who keep a watch on student politics but also sent a shock wave in the Congress camp, which had adopted all unfair means to win the elections but could win only one post and that also with a very thin margin.
“This election was won purely on our organisational strength. ABVP is a serious and cadre based student organisation, which works with proper planning. We have a good team of dedicated and committed workers who plan and execute different activities,” says former national president of ABVP Prof Rajkumar Bhatia. ABVP national president Prof Milind Marathe and national general secretary Shri Vishnudutt Sharma also congratulated the elected candidates and advised them to fight for the cause of students.
ABVP’s Jitender Chaudhary won the post of president by defeating NSUI’s Harish Choudhary by a margin of 1,943 votes. ABVP’s Priya Dabas and Neetu Dabas won the posts of vice-president and secretary respectively, while Akshay Kumar of NSUI was elected joint-secretary. AISF’s Aparajitha Raja, daughter of CPI leader D Raja, was third for the post of president by bagging 2,999 votes.Shri Jitender Chaudhary got 9,259 votes as compared to 7,316 votes secured by NSUI’s Harish Choudhary for president. Priya Dabas got 8,679 votes and defeated NSUI’s Vardhan Choudhary by a margin of 1,518 votes. Neetu Dabas won by a huge margin of 4,495 votes. NSUI’s Akshay Kumar won the post of joint secretary by defeating Saurabh Uniyal of ABVP by a margin of 626 votes.
According to Chief Returning Officer Prof JM Khurana the elections were conducted in a peaceful manner and a total of 32,461 votes were polled. Out of total 94,678 voters, 32,461 voters (about 35 per cent) exercised their right.
With strict norms for elections in place in line with the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, the campaign was without fervour this time in Delhi University. Last year, seven candidates were disqualified by the university authorities for violating election norms and thus the student organisations as well as the candidates in fray were extra-cautious this time. Last year, the ABVP and NSUI had won one seat each with the university authorities disqualifying their seven candidates for violating election norms. In 2009, an independent but ABVP supported candidate, Manoj Choudhary had won the presidential post followed by ABVP’s Kriti Wadhera winning the vice-presidential post. NSUI had bagged the post of secretary only with Arshdeep Kaur winning the election. “We are happy with the results and will work as a team to solve the problems of students. We will concentrate on the issues that we have raised in our manifesto and providing more facilities to students will be our utmost priority,” said Shri Jitender Chaudhary talking to Organiser. He added that they would work for providing hostel facilities and youth special bus service to the students. He said the new team would work with constructive approach and cooperative attitude with the university authorities. Secretary Neetu Dabas said they all would work to provide more facilities to the students. “We will concentrate on the problems faced by the students and particularly faced by the girl students,” she said.
Apart from the top three posts, the ABVP also performed well in different colleges of Delhi. ABVP candidates swept in Bhagini Nivedita, Indira Gandhi Institute, Vivekananda, Ramlal and Rajdhani colleges winning all the seven posts.
In Aurobindo College it won the post of secretary while in PGDAV it bagged the posts of president, secretary, joint secretary and college councillor. In Bhagat Singh College it won the posts of president, vice-president and secretary while in Deshbandhu College the posts of secretary, joint secretary and college councillor were won. In Dayal Singh, it won the posts of president, vice-president, college councillor, while in Shivaji College the posts of secretary and college councillor were won. In Shyamlal (Evening), the posts of vice-president, secretary, treasure and college councillor were won. In Aditi College the post of president while in Satyawati (Morning) the posts of vice-president, joint secretary and college councillor were won.
Talking to Organiser, ABVP national secretary Shreerang Kulkarni said despite gross misuse of official machinery by government and repeated discrimination with ABVP candidates by the University administration the students wholeheartedly supported the ABVP. “The violation of Lyngdoh Committee recommendations by NSUI candidates was repeatedly ignored by the University administration. We submitted clear evidences of the violation, but no action was taken,” alleged Shri Kulkarni. About the preparations for the polls he said, “Unlike previous years there was decentralised system of canvassing this year and the whole Delhi had been divided into seven Vibhags, which were monitored by senior workers. Only the student leaders who were active throughout the year were given tickets. The social media which includes SMS, emails, blog, etc. were used on large-scale for canvassing. It not only saved the money but also spread our message effectively among the students. This experiment worked as most of the DU students are internet savvy. Now we have to do some concrete work in Delhi University by implementing our manifesto,” added Shri Kulkarni.
During the last few years the ABVP has rebuilt strong base in Delhi University. Starting from 2008 it added a seat each to its tally and they have all been progressively top-down in the DUSU hierarchy. After five years, Nupur Sharma was elected president in 2008. In 2009, it won top two posts-president and vice-president. This year it added the post of secretary also in this tally.
Shri Ashutosh Srivastava, Delhi state secretary of ABVP, described the results as victory of nationalism. He said the results reflected that the youth are with saffron forces and the national issues like inflation and others concern them also. “We are very happy with the results and this is due to the hard work which the workers have done continuously during the past few years,” he said. He added that students have shown their trust in ABVP as it raised the issue of semester system in Delhi University, issue of hostel facilities and other important issues.
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