DUSU election fervour

Pragya Kaushika / TNN / Sep 10, 2006, 22:59 IST

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As soon as the results were announced for this year's DUSU elections, supporters of both ABVP and NSUI started dancing on the streets to celebrate.

As soon as the results were announced for this year's Delhi University Student Union (DUSU) elections, supporters of both Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and National Students' Union of India (NSUI) started dancing on the streets to celebrate the victory of their winning candidates, whose faces were hidden behind garlands.
Unlike last year, when all the four DUSU seats went to NSUI, ABVP has managed to bag the post of vice president this
election.
With the entire process being dominated by the presence of Congress leaders, DUSU elections hardly looked like a students' affair.

This time even BJP and RSS members joined the bandwagon and could be seen taking rounds of the campus congratulating their candidates.
"At our party meeting, we had decided to take rounds to support our candidates," said Ramgopal, RSS activist.
Interestingly, majority of the DU students seemed least bothered about the winning parties and their agendas. "Every year there is a feeling of anxiety till the election results are out, but after that every one knows that none of the elected candidates are going to bother to address students' issues," said Abhishekh Tiwari of Hansraj College.

As it has happened in the past DUSU polls, this election too witnessed an open flouting of code of conducts by the candidates.
However, the administration has decided to make a serious note of the violation and constituted a three-member committee to look into the election process and highlight the loopholes that have remained unplugged till now.
The committee comprises Kavita Sharma, principal, Hindu College, Asif Sharma, chief returning officer, DU and Jaswinder Singh, principal, Khalsa College.
According to Gurmeet Singh, chief election officer for this year's polls, the next elections will need an amendment in the Delhi University constitution.
"There is no punishment for students who spend too much in campaigning. Many of them take liberty with the code of conduct as constitutionally we cannot book these contestants," he said.
The committee is also planning to make the election rules stricter from next year. "We will try to insert a clause in the constitution where candidates campaigning with placards for any political party like ABVP or NSUI for instance, will be disqualified.
We will try to make DUSU elections more student-centric and without any involvement of political parties," emphasised Gurmeet Singh.
Jaswinder Singh, principal, Khalsa College, added that re-admission will be banned for those who enrol for a DU course just to contest elections.
The committee alongwith DUSU officebearers will amend the constitution. "Till now we had article 15 (P), under which fine and dismissal can be imposed as a punishment for misconduct, but we do not have any punishment for flouting the election code of conduct," he said.

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