DUSU polls: ABVP bags top 3 seats, NSUI makes comeback

The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad maintained its dominance in the Delhi University Students’ Union polls bagging three seats including that of president, while Congress’ National Students’ Union of India made a comeback by winning the joint secretary’s post in the results announced on Saturday.

Amit Tanwar is the new president of DUSU while ABVP’s Priyanaka and Ankit Singh have been elected as vice president and secretary respectively, according to the Chief Election Officer for DUSU elections, D S Rawat.

NSUI candidate Mohit Garid won the joint secretary’s seat, preventing a hat-trick by ABVP which had bagged all the four seats in the DUSU polls last year as well as in 2014.

Aam Aadmi Party’s Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, which was defeated last year in its debut, did not contest the polls this year.

A significant number of 17,712 ‘None Of The Above’ votes which were introduced for the first time in DUSU polls, were also exercised by the students.

In the keenly contested president’s post, Amit Tanwar got 16,357 votes defeating NSUI candidate Nikhil Yadav by a margin of 4,680 votes, Rawat said.

Priyanka, who is the lone girl in the elected panel, obtained 15,592 votes. She defeated her closest rival by a margin of 2,455 votes.

Ankit Singh Sangwan, who won the secretary’s post got 15,518 votes. He won by a margin of 1,383 votes.

NSUI’s winning candidate Mohit Garid garnered the maximum votes in the elected panel at 16,526 votes, winning the seat by a margin of 2,466 votes.  

The DUSU polls were held on Friday in two phases for electing representatives from 17 candidates of ABVP, All India Students’ Association and NSUI.

While seven candidates were in the race for the post of president, 4 nominations were validated for the post of vice-president

Over 36 per cent out of a total of 1,23,246 voters had cast their votes at 117 booths in 51 colleges.

Celebrations broke out with supporters of the winning candidates dancing to the drumbeats and distributing sweets outside the counting centre.

The winners were garlanded and procession were taken out by ABVP supporters who paid tributes at Swami Vivekanand’s statue in the Arts Faculty of the university.