New Delhi: Barely seven months after the party stormed to power in the national capital, members of AAP's students' wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) -- are leaving no stone unturned to make sure that they emerge on top in the DUSU polls riding the 'Arvind Kejriwal wave'.
While the Delhi Chief Minister's smiling face adorns CYSS posters and banners all over North Campus, the young candidates keep echoing his name as they promise their fellow students a politics free of "money power and muscle power".
The newest entrant in the fray has turned the traditional DUSU calculations on its head with the contest this year set to be a "triangular" one as against the earlier two-sided affair involving NSUI and ABVP.
The day their names were officially announced as CYSS panelists, Hitanshi Chauhan, Rahul Raj Aryan, Garima Rana and Kuldeep Bidhuri were seen standing behind Kejriwal at a star-studded concert at Talakatora stadium, something that did not go down well with the opposition, which questioned the chief minister's presence at a students' event.
"Arvindji was there merely to boost our morales. And the performers were any way AAP supporters and did not charge us a penny," said Bidhuri, CYSS's presidential candidate.
As to their stand for the DUSU poll contest, the CYSS candidates said that they are conditionally supporting the Choice-Based Credit System (CBCS), which is a major poll issue, although they were quick to add that it does not have "much relevance" among students as per an in-house survey done by them.
"We conducted a survey of around 20,000 students. The issue does not have much significance for them. It would be wrong to roll it back, but we will correct the errors," said Hitanshi, who is fighting for the post of Joint Secretary.Garima, the vice-presidential candidate, said there should be no "unilateral decisions".
"We are talking to students. Changes are required, but there should not be any unilateral decision," she says.
The candidate for the secretary's post, Rahul Raj Aryan, added, "In the last 10 years, issues used to be photocopied from one elections to the other. But we will not only fight money and muscle power but also ensure that DUSU works as a pressure group." In its charter of demands, CYSS has listed as key issues the implementation of the APJ Abdul Kalam education loan scheme, job fair and free wi-fi. On CBCS it says that an "infrastructural audit" is needed.
On the allegations in some quarters of senior AAP leaders visiting colleges, Garima said, "It would been wrong had they been canvassing for votes on our behalf."
The polling will take place in two phases (morning and evening) on September 11 followed by the counting of votes the next day, when the results are to be announced.
The DUSU polls last year were swept by the BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), which trounced Congress's National Students' Union of India (NSUI) to bag all four posts.
