As the election season in Delhi University kicks off, the atmosphere in the campus is warming up for some exciting action. The campaigning for Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) elections is in full swing. As the day for voting, September 9 is approaching, the two major student political parties NSUI (National Students Union of India) and ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad) are doing everything possible to attract votes from college students.
Informing about the main concerns of NSUI this year, Deepak Negi, a member of the party, says, “This time Ajay Chhikara from faculty of law is running for the post of president from our party. The main issues that we are highlighting this time are upgradation of libraries, placements for students, encouragement of sport activities and implementation of new rules for college teachers to reduce strikes. We are following the door-to-door campaigning strategy and reaching out to every student. We also distributed Anna topis with Ajay Chhikara’s name on it.”
ABVP is also making all possible effort to promote their candidate for the post of president. Sunil Bansal, All India joint organising secretary of ABVP, mentions that this year they have three main issues in their electoral manifesto. He says, “We are trying to reach out to students in the university hostels and different areas so that we get maximum support in fighting corruption in the education system. From our party Neha Singh is running for the presidential candidate position this time. We are fighting against corruption in educational bodies and also focusing on improvement of college infrastructure.”
“We also want to compel the authorities concerned to start evening colleges because for past 12 years there are no new institutes in Delhi and because of the lack of enough seats in DU the cut-offs are climbing higher every year,” he adds.
Interestingly, this year the introduction of two other parties All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has also changed the equations among the various student unions. Bhaskar Pant, a student at the department of East Asian studies in faculty of social sciences, DU, thinks that this time with two more parties in the DUSU elections, all the parties are trying their best to influence voters.
“The campaigning by all the participating parties is really strong this time due to more competition. The candidates are personally going to each and every student for support and their parties are distributing freebies to persuade voters. With the recent anti-corruption campaign that is still going on, the political environment in DU is gaining steam,” informs Bhaskar.