Freshers in south, west campuses to decide winners

new delhi: a movie for free. or a dance party. a section of students in the delhi university are getting lucky. the ``hottest'' property on campus, the two-month old faccha population, is being pampered by one of the electioneering student groups, much like their lok sabha counterparts who ``look after'' their vote banks. in a campus where less than 50 per cent of the 70,000-strong electorate participates in the election process, the newly inducted fresher can make all the difference between winning and losing, feel du students union aspirants.more than 35,000 freshers join the university every year. the electioneering groups follow a simple philosophy. ``freshers have a degree of interest and curiosity,'' said a veteran dusu member. and they haven't yet got too busy planning their career moves. the national students union of india unofficially admits it makes use of these baits. it's rival group, the akhil bharatiya vidyarthi parishad, is not too happy. ``we too distribute items, but they are educational in nature,'' said abvp state secretary jatin mohanty. on wednesday, the last day of campaigning, the group plans to distribute yearly-planners and notepads in different colleges. but freebies or no, the candidates are going all out to capture the attention of students. consider the gruelling routine of abvp candidates. up and about at 7.30 am at the bus stops to score points with the u-special commuters. thereafter it is a class to class rigmarole in different colleges. ``the day often stretches to 18 hours,'' a candidate said. evening colleges get a dose of campaigning in afternoon. from 9 pm to 11 pm, it is hostellers, while the 11 pm to 1 am slot is reserved for students staying in rented accommodations or in private hostels. the routine of nsui candidates is just as formidable. what comes as a surprise is the relative lack of canvassing activity in colleges of north campus. the main rival groups, nsui and abvp, are concentrating on the west and south campus colleges. for one, the north campus student is less interested in politics. and secondly, a number of colleges are not affiliated to the dusu in the first place, said nsui spokesperson rishab jha. moreover, one can never be sure which side a north campus student will tilt, despite all the attention. one of the campaign strategies is also to concentrate more on colleges where the group has a stronger hold. ``these are the colleges where the contestants have been active in college-level politics,'' mohanty said. take for instance, the nsui which claims to have a stronghold on dayal singh, rajdhani, shivaji, zakir hussain, miranda house and satyavati college among others. it's right-wing rival abvp claims to be strong in aurobindo, deshbandhu, venkateshwara, bhagat singh, bharti, shyamlal, vivekanand among other. as for the latest, the nsui has declared itself techno-savvy, having launched a website which shall proclaim all its achievements. ``our presidential candidate neetu verma will also chat with students,'' jha added.