With a total of 41 candidates remaining in the race for the upcoming Delhi University Students' Union elections, serious campaigning has just begun on the campus.
As in the past, the main contenders are the Bharatiya Janata Party-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI), followed by the Left-affiliated All India Students' Association (AISA). The All India Students' Federation (AISF) has allied with the Students' Federation of India (SFI), although their individual recent poll performances have been dismal.
Fourteen candidates will compete for the post of president and nine for vice-president. There are 10 candidates in the fray for secretary and eight for joint secretary.
The ABVP, which won the top three slots of president, vice-president and secretary last year, will focus on issues like corruption, crowded classrooms and hostels. Pushing for more colleges in the university will be the major agenda.
“There has been no new college in the university for 12 years now despite the increase in population and demand,” says presidential candidate Neha Singh, an MA student of Buddhist studies.
Vikas Choudhary, a political science student from Ramlal Anand College, is the vice-presidential candidate and Vikas Yadav, an MA student of Buddhist studies, is the candidate for the secretary's post. Deepak Bansal, also an MA student of Buddhist studies, will contest for joint secretary.
The NSUI, which managed just one post of joint secretary last year, will base its campaign on issues like better libraries, hostels and women's safety. “I led the agitation against the murder of DU student Radhika Tanwar last year and have been closely associated with the National Commission for Women,” says candidate for secretary's post Parag Sharma, an MA student of Buddhist studies, whose nomination was initially cancelled but later accepted by the university authorities.
The NSUI has fielded Ajay Chikara, a final year student of Campus Law Centre, for the president's post; Bhupender Choudhari, a first year student of Motilal Nehru College, for the post of vice-president; and Ashish Chaudhary for the post of joint secretary.
Meanwhile, AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes met the NSUI candidates at a meeting attended among others by Congress leader Jag Parvesh Kumar, MPs Meenakshi Natarajan and Ramesh Kumar and NSUI president I.B. Eiden.
The AISA, which made its anti-corruption stand clear in early August by organising a 100-hour student barricade, will take the issue further in their campaign for DUSU. Other issues include scholarships for financially deprived students, gender sensitisation committees to tackle sexual harassment, proper implementation of reservation and withdrawal of bus fare hike and fee hikes.
Amit Srivastava of Satyawati College has been fielded for the president's post and Waseem Javed, a student of Law, is the vice-presidential candidate. Kumar Saurabh from Hindu College has been fielded for the secretary's post and the candidate for joint secretary is Puneet Pushkar of Dyal Singh College (Evening).
The AISF and SFI alliance have fielded an AISF candidate, Sowmya Gulia, a third year sociology student from Miranda House, for the president's post and Ritu Priya, an SFI member and second year student from Campus Law Centre, as the vice-presidential candidate. Mukesh Kumar belonging to ASIF, from Ramjas College, has been fielded as the candidate for secretary. Ajay Kumar from SFI, a Motilal Nehru college student, will contest for joint secretary.
