The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is eyeing its fifth consecutive win in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) polls as the students vote today to elect a new panel. Students of morning colleges can vote from 8 am to 12 pm while for evening colleges, polls open at 2 pm and close at 7 pm.
The DUSU polls this year played out in the Delhi High Court with one of the candidates moving court over the rejection of his nomination for the presidential post on grounds of disciplinary action. The High Court last week allowed NSUI candidate Rocky Tuseed to contest the DUSU elections. In an interim order, Justice Indermeet Kaur granted the relief to Tuseed by allowing him to contest the polls to be held on September 12.
Candidates
The Congress-backed NSUI has fielded Rocky Tuseed for the president's post, Kunal Sehrawat for the post of vice-president, Meenakshi Meena for secretary and Avinash Yadav for joint secretary.
The BJP-backed ABVP has nominated Motilal Nehru College student Rajat Choudhary as president candidate while Paarth Rana, Mahamedhaa Nagar and Uma Shankar are contesting for the posts of vice-president, secretary and joint secretary respectively.
Students' Federation of India (SFI), the Communist Party of India (Marxist), has fielded Rafat Alam for the president's post while Jitendra Kumar, Kolisetty Lakshmi and Roshan have been nominated for the posts of vice-president, secretary and joint secretary respectively.
The AISA has named Parul Chauhan for the post of president, Aditya Baibhav for vice-president, Jaishree for secretary and Akash Gupta for joint secretary.
HC notice to DUSU poll candidates for defacing properties
The court on Monday had issued show cause notice to candidates of various parties contesting elections as to why action should not be taken against them for allegedly defacing public property with their posters. The High Court also pulled up the Delhi Police for not taking action or arresting the violators for the offence of defacing public properties which attracts a maximum jail term of 10 years.
A bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar said the offence was cognisable and liable to be punished and a strong message should go so that the violators learn a lesson.
The court issued show cause notice to over 10 candidates of various parties, including ABVP and Congress-backed NSUI, and asked them to explain why action should not be taken against them for allegedly defacing public property by pasting advertisments and putting banners.
It asked the Election Commission of DU to ensure that notice is served to the candidates.
Among others, the court issued show cause notice to NSUI's presidential candidate Rocky Tuseed and ABVP's Ankit Basoya and Mahamedha Nagar and listed the matter for hearing on September 20.
