By IANS,
New Delhi: The Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) Saturday won three of the four seats in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections while the result for the fourth post – of joint secretary – was tied with the ABVP, an official said.
NSUI’s Arun Hooda won the president’s post, Varun Khari was declared the new vice president and Varun Chaudhary was elected the secretary.
There was a tie between Raveena Choudhary of NSUI and Vishu Basoya of the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) for the joint secretary’s post.
According to officials the voter turnout was between 38-40 percent.
The NSUI blamed the ABVP for not “relating” to the students of the university, the reason behind their defeat.
“ABVP focused on issues not related to the university that’s why they lost,” Hooda told IANS.
Agreed Varun Chaudhary, who told IANS: “The ABVP failed to relate to the students. They ignored the needs of the students and indulged in mud-slinging… Their defeat was imminent.”
Meanwhile, chaos prevailed at Chatra Marg as soon as the results were out. ABVP supporters claimed that the polls had been rigged and demanded a recount.
As tempers flared, the crowds were baton-charged by Delhi Police personnel to disperse them.
Around half-a-dozen ABVP supporters and leaders, including Basoya and presidential candidate Ankit Dhananjay Chaudhary, were injured and taken to Bara Hindu Rao hospital as several other supporters raised slogans against the police and verbally abused them.
“The polls were surely rigged and we suspect that the attack on our supporters was planned… We will agitate and go to a court against the results,” ABVP spokesperson Rohit Chahal told IANS.
Citing the police action as “arbitrary” and “unnecessary”, former DUSU vice president and ABVP leader Priya Dabas said that the “there was pressure from above” on the police to act in such a manner.
“There is pressure from above on them (police) to beat us and harass us… Is this a democracy or dictatorship,” she asked while speaking to IANS.
The ABVP had thumped the NSUI in last year’s elections, bagging three of the four posts. The NSUI could only win the president’s post.
Delhi University, one of India’s oldest, was established in 1922.