Voting begins for Delhi University Students’ Union elections

New Delhi [India]: Voting began on Friday for the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections that is being held after a gap of four years.

Delhi police and paramilitary personnel have been deployed outside colleges where polling are taking place.

A total of 24 candidates are in the fray for four posts — president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary.

Eight candidates who filled their nomination for the post of the president are Aiyesha Ahmad Khan from Miranda House, Arif Siddiqui from the Department of Buddhist Studies, Himanshu Thakur from Hansraj College, Hitesh Gulia Alias Hitesh from Law Center, Shimpi from Lakshmi Bai College, Shraddha Gupta from Department of Library and Information Science, Soumya Kumar Satyam from  A-U Tibbia College and Tushar Dedha from the Department of Buddhist Studies.

Meanwhile, the chief election officer received five nominations for the post of Vice President – Abhi Dahiya from the Department of Buddhist Studies, Ankit from Campus Law Centre, Anushka Chaudhary from Law Centre, Sushant Dhankar from the Department of Buddhist Studies and Yash Khatri from Shivaji College.

Six candidates have filed their nominations for the post of Secretary. These include Aditi Tyagi from South Delhi Campus, Aditya Pratap Singh from Deshbandhu College, Aprajita from Department of Buddhist Studies, Kavita from Aditi Mahavidyalaya, Nishi Himanshu Raj from Law Centre II and Yakshna Sharma from Campus Law Centre.

Elections to the students’ body were last held in 2019. Students’ union elections could not be held in 2020 and 2021 because of Covid-19 and disruptions to the academic calendar prevented the elections in 2022.

Students of the day classes began at 8.30 am and will continue till 1 pm while voting for evening classes will begin at 3 pm and conclude at 7.30 pm. The counting of votes date, time, and venue will be announced later.

DUSU is the main representative body of students from most colleges and faculties. Apart from this, each college has its own students’ union, elections to which are held annually.

DUSU elections are held via direct voting by students of the varsity and member colleges. They are usually conducted in August-September.

Elections to the varsity’s students’ body are organised simultaneously with polls at the college level. Nearly 2,500 students contest the elections for the nearly 500 posts.

In the 2019 elections, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)-backed candidates Dahiya was elected president, Pradeep Tanwar vice-president and Shinvangi Kharwal joint secretary of the students’ union