Counting of votes for the Delhi University Students’ Union election (DUSU election) were taking place on Friday, a day after students across DU colleges affiliated with the DUSU cast their votes amid heavy security for the poll in which ABVP and NSUI are the main contenders.
Polling for the high-octane DUSU election recorded a voter turnout of nearly 40 per cent on Thursday. Follow DUSU election live updates
The top post winner will succeed current DUSU president and NSUI leader Ronak Khatri.
DUSU election results | What we know
-Leading candidates at 1:30 pm: After 16 rounds of counting, ABVP’s Aryan Maan, for the president post of DUSU, was leading with a huge margin at around 2 pm. While NSUI’s Rahul Jhansla was leading for the vice president post, ABVP was ahead in all other posts.
ABVP
President: Aryan Maan – 21,854 votes
Vice president: Govind Tanwar – 16,013 votes
Secretary: Kunal Chaudhary – 18,506 votes
Joint secretary: Deepika Jha – 16,501 votes
NSUI
President: Joslyn Nandita Choudhary – 9,973 votes
Vice president: Rahul Jhansla – 22,770 votes
Secretary: Kabir Girsa – 12,419 votes
Joint secretary: Lavkush Badhana – 13,996 votes
Who are the ABVP candidates: The DUSU election contest is for four positions — president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary. As mentioned above, the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has fielded Aryan Maan for the post of president, Govind Tanwar for vice president, Kunal Choudhary for secretary and Deepika Jha for the joint secretary post.
Who are the NSUI candidates: The Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) has fielded Joslyn Nandita Choudhary for the post of president, Rahul Jhansla Yadav for vice president, Kabir Girsa for secretary and Lavkush Bhadana for the joint secretary post.
Who is Arya Maan: ABVP’s presidential candidate Aryan Maan hails from Haryana’s Bahadurgarh. Subsidised metro passes, free Wi-Fi across campus, accessibility audits for persons with disabilities, and better sports facilities are among his poll promises.
Who is Joslyn Nandita Choudhary: NSUI’s candidate for DUSU president post, Joslyn Nandita Choudhary is a postgraduate student of Buddhist Studies. She focused her DUSU poll campaign on hostel shortage, campus safety and the demand for menstrual leave.
SFI-AISA also contending: The SFI-AISA combine has nominated Anjali, a student of Indraprastha College for Women, for the post of president. While it is a triangular contest, the main contenders are ABVP and the NSUI. Anjali has campaigned on issues of gender sensitisation, fee hikes and the restoration of grievance redressal mechanisms. The SFI-AISA was trailing on all posts.
2024 DUSU election results: The 2024 DUSU poll saw the NSUI ending its seven-year losing streak by winning the president and joint secretary posts, while the ABVP bagged the vice-president’s office and retained the secretary position. Over the past decade, the ABVP has dominated the presidential election, winning six times, while the NSUI has bagged the post twice.
What makes DUSU election an key student contest: The DUSU elections remain a high-profile student contest, often seen as a mirror of national political trends, with several top politicians of prominent political parties tracing back their entry to politics from here. The DUSU was established in 1949, with its first elections held in 1954. Late Arun Jaitley, Ajay Maken, Alka Lamba and Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta are among some of the many leaders who were once part of DUSU and went on to hold key positions in Indian politics.
