DUSU elections: 44.46% voter turnout, candidates wait with bated breath as counting begins

The results of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections to the posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary will be out shortly with counting scheduled to begin at 8 am on Thursday.

The polls to decide the fate of 23 students ended peacefully on Wednesday with around 44.46 per cent voter turnout till 7.30 pm on Wednesday. Polling took place at 52 centres in the colleges where 1.35 lakh voters cast their votes.

Heavy police force was deployed in the area, with around 700 personnel stationed in the north campus and over 500 personnel deployed in the south campus. Senior faculty members were posted as observers at the centres and around 700 electronic voting machines (EVMs) had been installed, the official said.

Half-a-dozen students were briefly taken into preventive custody by police after they were found trying to create ruckus at a couple of polling booths in North Campus.

DUSU election 2018 results LIVE: Counting to begin soon, tight three-way fight expected

Two of them were agitated over the issue of showing identity cards and were removed from outside Hansraj College. The others were taken into custody from outside Ramjas College since they were protesting. All of them were later released.

In Vivekananda College, there was a delay of over an hour in the commencement of the elections, since there was no data available for students to vote for the treasurer’s post, sources said. The voting resumed after the data was keyed-in.

The Aurobindo College witnessed a turnout of 44.72 per cent, Hansraj 50 per cent, Deshbandhu College 44 per cent and Aditi Mahavidyalaya 48 per cent.

In the morning colleges, polling began at 8.30 am and ended at 1 pm. In the evening colleges, polling was held between 3-7.30 pm.

Candidates of the NSUI, ABVP and the AAP’s student wing, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) -- which is contested the polls in alliance with left-wing students’ outfit All India Students Association (AISA) – are in the fray.

While the NSUI has promised the ‘Institute of Eminence’ tag for Delhi University and thalis at ₹10 in canteens, the ABVP has promised to spend 50 per cent of the union’s budget on women and social justice-related activities, along with a special attention on promoting sports and installing sanitary pad vending machines in college campuses.

After the AAP came to power in Delhi in February 2015, its students’ wing had unsuccessfully contested the DUSU polls. This time, it has promised installation of CCTV cameras, setting up of police booths in the campus, ending the “culture of hooliganism” and opposition to “commercialisation of education”.

(With PTI inputs)