By IANS,
New Delhi : The turnout of voters at the Delhi University (DU) polls Friday was a meagre 35 percent but that didn’t deter the campaigners from making it colourful with last minute campaigning, slogan shouting and filling the roads with a carpet of posters.
The Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections are a major affair for the cub politicians of the varsity and their scores of supporters. For most students, though, it was yet another ‘undeclared’ holiday.
“I am not voting. Frankly, I don’t see any of these candidates around once the elections are over. It’s just during the pre-election days that they come in hordes, ask our problems and promise to set things right,” said Abhishek Awasthi, a second year student of Hindu college.
Similarly, Shaheen Ahmed, a student of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), said that the polling day is taken-for-granted as a holiday.
“None of my friends went to vote today. And since many teachers are involved in the polling process, classes were called off. Therefore, it’s just another holiday for us making it an extended weekend,” she said.
For the campaigners, however, the low number of voters was by no means a deterrent to high spirits.
“Voter turnout of 40-50 percent is deemed very high during these elections. Generally it doesn’t go beyond 35-40 percent and this time it’s the same case. However that doesn’t discourage anyone… ultimately it’s the majority we are all fighting for,” Bhanu Sharma, a party member of Students Federation of India (SFI), told IANS.
And last minute attempts to woo the student voters – whether by singing slogans or pushing forth pamphlets in their hands – is what they all believe in.
“Until a student goes inside the booth to vote, we don’t give up hope of convincing him or her to vote for us,” said Rakesh Misra, a student distributing tiny pamphlets supporting the National Students Union of India (NSUI).
Vinod Budhiraj, another NSUI supporter in charge of the campaigning in SRCC, while distributing pamphlets till the last moment, said that he was confident of NSUI’s win.
“I have been on the roads of the campus for the last four days and I am sure that this year too, like last time, NSUI will sweep the polls,” Budhiraj told IANS.
NSUI is the student wing of Congress while the Akhil Bharathiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is that of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
A total of 36 polling booths were put up for the students to cast their votes. The polling began at 8 a.m and went on till 12 in the afternoon in the regular colleges and from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. in the evening colleges.
Another familiar sight in the campus, besides the bunches of students in front of the colleges and the campaigners, along with their senior party members as guides, were the cops.
Stationed at various locations, outside and inside colleges and on the roads, uniformed men and women kept a careful eye on the students, even as CCTV cameras in strategic locations monitored movements.
“There was a scuffle between members of NSUI and ABVP last night, but other than that I haven’t heard of any untoward incident here,” Bhanu said.
The results of the DUSU elections are scheduled to be declared Saturday.