New Delhi:
Polling for four positions of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) will be held on Thursday, with over 1.3 lakh students being eligible to cast their votes.
“EVMs were delivered to the polling centres on Wednesday and strict security arrangements have been made. The Community Hall at the Police Lines in northwest Delhi’s Kingsway Camp will be the counting centre for the polls,” DU Chief Election Officer Ashok Prasad said.
“Over 1.3 lakh students will cast their votes at 52 polling centres. The results will be declared on September 13,” he said.
The keenly contested polls will see a woman candidate fighting for the president post from the Congress-backed NSUI after a gap of 11 years. Its rival ABVP had last fielded a woman candidate in 2011.
Out of the 16 candidates in fray, there are only four women in contention, while two of them are contesting independently.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has fielded Akshit Dahiya for the post of DUSU president, Pradeep Tanwar for the vice president’s post, Yogit Rathee for the general secretary’s post and Shivangi Kherwal for the post of joint secretary.
The National Students Union of India (NSUI) has pitted Chetna Tyagi against Dahiya and Left-backed AISA’s Damini Kain for the post of president.
The NSUI has fielded Ankit Bharti for the vice president’s post, Ashish Lamba for the secretary’s post and Abhishek Chaprana for the post of joint secretary.
On the security front, a senior police officer said, the assistant commissioners of police and station house officers of the northwest district will supervise arrangements at the counting centre.
Victory marches towards the university’s North Campus will be monitored by personnel of the north police district, the officer said.
Last year, counting was suspended over allegations of faulty electronic voting machines. It was later resumed.
The ABVP had won on three posts, while the Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India had won on one post in the last year polls, which recorded a 44.46 per cent voter turnout.
Promises to remove inequality, fight for women’s safety, sending students to the Olympics and procuring concessional passes for the metro are among the promises made by various student outfits ahead of the polls.
