DUSU polls: Turnout improves by 10%, votes will be counted today

With morning colleges recording over 45% voter turnout on Tuesday, the Delhi University Students’ Union polls had a better turnout than last year.

The voter turnout has increased by almost 10% since last year. According to SB Babbar, the chief election officer of DU, of the 1,02,624 voters in the 40-odd DUSU affiliated morning colleges, 46,504 students turned up to cast their votes.

Aryabhatta College recorded one of the lowest turnouts, of around 14%, according to Manoj Sinha, the principal.

The major players in the fray include the RSS –backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Congress’ student outfit National Students Union of India. The left wing All India Students Association (AISA) are also one of the more vocal participants.

Though the counting of votes for the central panel will be done on Wednesday, results of individual colleges had started pouring in on Tuesday. ABVP claimed to have swept Vivekananda College, Laxmibai College, Satyawati Evening College and Zakir Hussein Evening College, while winning many seats at multiple other colleges. NSUI also claimed to have swept around eight colleges.

While the north campus seemed to have been cleaned of many of the posters and fliers, a little further away at Satyawati College, fliers littered every inch of the road.

Security had been tightened across the North Campus. Chhatra Marg had been barricaded off, and cops were seen clearing groups of people loitering near the gates. At Ramjas College, which was described as “especially vulnerable” by a police officer, students were not allowed to loiter within 50 feet of the entry gates.

Students said they vote on everything from their stance on issues, to party affiliations.

“Whatever a candidate does, is at the end of the day based on his party politics. So it is important to look at the candidate as not just an individual, but also at his affiliations,” said Elizabeth Yeldo, a second year Chemistry (hons) student at Miranda House.

Students of evening colleges in South Campus like PGDAV college, Motilal Nehru and Aurobindo said that they felt neglected.

Kuljeet Kaur a student at Motilal Nehru college evening said, “It gets very difficult during winters as the sun sets early and we have to walk till Satya Niketan to get a bus. There is no bus facility and we have to walk till Satya Niketan to get a bus. This is unsafe for girls.”

There were also pamphlets and fliers that were being distributed that had false information, though it is unverified who published them.