Nationalism has triumphed over vandalism, indiscipline and Naxalism in Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections. ABVP- the students’ wing of the RSS- has won three out of four posts in DUSU. It conquered the post of President, Vice President and Joint Secretary. On the other hand, NSUI-student wing of the Congress- managed to secure the post of secretary. CPI (ML)’s notorious student wing and AAP’s student wing, AISA and CYSS respectively also contested elections in a coalition but they failed to make any impact at all.

ABVP’s presidential candidate-Ankiv Baisoya- won the post with a margin of 1744 votes. He secured 20,467 votes, whereas his nearest rival Sunny Chhillar of NSUI polled 18,723 votes. ABVP’s vice president candidate-Shakti Singh- showed his Shakti (power) and secured the post with a huge margin of 7673 votes. He got 23046 votes against NSUI rival Leena’s 15373 votes. NSUI’s Akash Choudhary bagged the post of secretary while ABVP’s Jyoti emerged victorious on the post of joint secretary with 19,353 votes.

Lakhs of students voted this year in the DUSU elections. Voter turnout was of 44.46 percent which is a record high in 12 years. Voting took place at 52 centers in the different colleges.

NOTA also got 10.7% of the total votes which is lowest since it was introduced in the year in 2016. In the year 2016, NOTA got 12.6% and in 2017 it rose to 16.5%. In 2018 DUSU elections, on the post of President, Vice President, Secretary and Joint Secretary, NOTA received 6211, 6435, 6810 and 8273 votes respectively. NOTA received a total of 27739 votes. NOTA gave a very tough competition to the coalition of CYSS and AISA which received 29506 votes. Secretary and Joint Secretary candidates of CYSS got a total of 13781 votes whereas on the very same post- NOTA got total 15083 votes.

These results are pleasant news for the BJP and its supporters. These results are the pointer to the fact that the youth does not just support but embrace nationalism, development and saffron wave. Ahead of 2019 general elections, these results become very crucial. Call it coincident or whatever you wish to call, on the past five occasions, the party which managed to secure victory in DUSU elections went to successfully conquer the Lok Sabha elections next year. This happened in the general elections that took place a year after the DUSU elections held in 1997, 1998, 2003, 2008 and 2013. This year’s DUSU election outcomes are similar to the results of 2013 DUSU election results. The ABVP had won the posts of president, vice president and joint secretary in 2013 too. And in the next year’s Lok Sabha elections, the BJP-led NDA came to power with the splendid victory. The BJP alone managed to cross majority mark on its own. In 2008, 2003, 1998 and 1997 also the party which won DUSU elections came to power in the next year’s elections. It would be interesting to see whether this tradition would go on in 2019 as well or not.

Reacting on BJP’s resounding victory, Bharat Khatana, head of ABVP’s DU unit, said, “DUSU gives direction to the nation. These results will impact next year’s election.” ABVP media in-charge Monica Chaudhary said, “Though these are student elections, DU attracts a lot of attention across the country. This victory shows that the nation supports our ideology and will continue to do so.” The new DUSU President Ankiv Baisoya said that he, “will work for a responsible DUSU which will cater to all the problems of the students and respond to them as diligently as possible.”

To know more: Why ABVP remains the dominant nationalist force in our Campuses