Till Friday morning last week, there was no certainty if the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) will be able to field its presidential candidate, Rocky Tuseed, whose nomination had been rejected by the DUSU Election Commissioner on “disciplinary grounds”.
The organisation had even extended its support to an independent candidate, Alka, in case the Delhi High Court rejected its plea challenging the poll panel’s decision.
In just five days since the court reinstated Mr. Tuseed’s nomination, the NSUI has witnessed a turn of fortunes it had been awaiting for four years. The students of Delhi University on Wednesday elected Mr. Tuseed as the new president of their union.
Nail-biting finish
After a nail-biting counting session, the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) panel looked interesting with two wins each for the Congress-affiliated NSUI and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The NSUI clinched the posts of president and vice-president, while ABVP candidates won the secretary and joint secretary posts.
The first few rounds of the counting saw the ABVP comfortably ahead of the others. However, soon after, reports of the NSUI taking a lead started trickling in from the counting centre. By noon, one could see hundreds of NSUI members in celebratory mood. Cheering for their presidential candidate, the supporters chanted “Rocky Returns” outside the Police Lines, where the counting was still on.
After reports of the NSUI leading on three posts came in, the number of ABVP supporters at the counting centre started shrinking even as NSUI crowd swelled. with the final result a tie between the two groups, the ABVP supporters breathed a sigh of relief.
Controversies galore
Over the past few months, the ABVP has found itself in the middle of a number of controversies, including the violence at Ramjas College in February. Members of the ABVP were accused of vandalising the college and attacking students for organising a seminar where students and activists from JNU were invited as speakers.
Also, weeks before the polls, reports of the ABVP spending ₹22 lakh of the assigned ₹26 lakh for the DUSU budget on miscellaneous expenditure were doing the rounds.
The NSUI said that the DUSU poll results reflected how the university students had lost faith in the ABVP, which had been in power for the last four terms. The organisation also alleged discrepancies in the counting of votes for the post of joint secretary and demanded the EC to carry out a recounting.
