The Congress, which had criticised the Aam Aadmi Party’s move to support students’ politics ahead of the DUSU elections, has now assigned its senior leaders to organise a door-to-door campaign for candidates of its students wing.
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The National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) is the Congress-affiliated students wing that has maintained a strong presence in Delhi University politics.
As part of its campaign ‘ do haath, chalis ka sath ’, senior Congress leaders will go to the houses of DU students and speak to them about the NSUI candidates.
“It is very important that the students remember names of our candidates, which is why we are organising a door-to-door campaign,” a senior Congress leader said.
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As many as 250 senior leaders including MLAs and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Ajay Maken will be part of the campaign.
The Congress, however, feels its campaign is not similar to that of the AAP for its students wing, CYSS.
“There is a very thin line between their (CYSS) campaigning involving senior leaders and ours. We are not going all out and printing the pictures of our leaders like Rahul Gandhi or Sonia Gandhi to garner votes for NSUI candidates. We are just spreading the word among students,” the party leader added.
Earlier, the NSUI had criticised the CYSS for organising a music concert at the Talkatora stadium.
“We had also organised a concert at the Thyagraj stadium some years back, but we never got our senior leaders like Mr. Gandhi to dance with the students,” the senior leader added. As per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, student parties cannot get endorsements from mainstream political leaders.
The NSUI candidates for this year include Pradeep Vijayran for the post of president, Prerna Singh for vice-president, Amit Sehrawat for secretary and Deepak Choudhary for joint secretary.
Introducing the candidates to the media on Saturday, NSUI national president Roji M. John said: “We are confident of winning the DUSU elections as we have a very strong and capable panel. As always, NSUI will be focusing on issue-based politics instead of indulging in the money-power game. Our agenda for this election is to get the anti-student policy of CBCS rolled back.”
“It is unfortunate that those who are making a huge claim of clean politics are misusing the government machinery and spending a huge amount of money, which is in violation of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. We will be filing an official complaint,” said Mr. John.
The Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections that are scheduled for September 11.