New Delhi: DUSU (Delhi University Students Union) elections were always dominated by ABVP (Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad) and National Students Union of India (NSUI). ABVP is the student wing of BJP while NSUI is the Student wing of Congress party.
In 2014, ABVP had swept these elections by winning all four positions - president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary - with comfortable margins. NSUI drew a blank in these elections.
2015 DUSU elections are different in the sense that the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), student wing of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), is going to make its debut in these elections. And they have full backing of top leadership of AAP including Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal.
After sweeping Delhi Assembly elections early this year, AAP seems to have set its eyes on ruling the campuses of Delhi University. Riding on Kejriwal's personal charisma, CYSS hopes to match AAP performance in Delhi Assembly elections in which the party had won 67 out of 70 seats.
Interestingly, CYSS had organised a rock concert at Talkatora stadium last month which was attended by top brass of Delhi govt including Chief Minister Kejriwal, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia and Transport Minister Gopal Rai.
Addressing DU students, Kejriwal promised them higher education loan scheme, one lakh jobs within a year and free wi-fi in DU colleges.
With open support from Delhi CM, will CYSS be able to replicate Kejriwal's spectacular Delhi Assembly victory in DUSU elections?
ABVP and NSUI have accused Delhi government of spending extravagantly in favour of CYSS but the AAP student wing vehemently denies this.
“It's totally wrong to say that we are getting huge monetary support from AAP. The party is promoting all its frontal organizations and CYSS is just one of them. Of course, we'll get the benefit of good work done by Kejriwal-led AAP govt in Delhi,” Anmol Pawar, Vice-president of CYSS countered.
Instead of relying on traditional ‘manifesto', CYSS has decided to launch a ‘Sadda Haq' campaign through which they will spread awareness among DU students about their rights.
“ Under this campaign, we'll be focusing on four important rights for students – Right to accommodation, Right to degree via education loan, Right to income and Right to wi-fi,” added Anmol.
Promising to usher in an era of clean and honest student politics, CYSS is confident of sweeping DUSU elections this year.
“We are confident of scoring a 4-0 victory. We aim to initiate an honest politics in Delhi University. Wi-fi is there in all colleges but they are not functional. We will ensure that it becomes fully functional by October this year. ABVP and NSUI encourage non-students to interfere in student politics. They do it to use muscle power in elections. We want to bring an end to that,” asserted CYSS leader Anupam.
How will the entry of CYSS impact the chances of tradional players like ABVP and NSUI?
ABVP, which had swept the elections last time, is confident of repeating the feat once again this year. The BJP student wing accused CYSS and its parent party AAP of openly indulging in ‘gundagardi' and threatening students.
“The claims of CYSS is nothing more than “ Mungerilal ke hasin sapne”. They are just day-dreaming. They have left NSUI behind in using money and muscle power. Leaders of CYSS and AAP are openly indulging in ‘gundagardi'. AAP has deployed all its legislators in Colleges of Delhi University to threaten students. Delhi's Transport Minister Gopal Rai was chased away by students of Swami Shraddhanand College. You tell me, What is the role of AAP leaders in these elections. But we had won all 4 seats last time and we'll repeat that performance once again,” Rohit Chahal, spokesperson of ABVP said.
What issues ABVP plans to raise in these elections?
“Not a single college has been opened in last 17 years. Congress ruled Delhi for 15 years and now it's the turn of AAP. We'll raise this in these elections. The DU stadiums built during Commonwealth Games are closed. They used to be opened now. We also want DU special buses to ply on Delhi roads. Then there are many issues related to students hostels that we will raise in these elections. We also want cheap and hygienic food for students,” Chahal added.
NSUI is leaving no stone unturned in reaching out to the students. For NSUI, rollback of CBCS(Choice based Credit System) will be the main plank in these elections.
“ Demand to rollback CBCS (Choice based Credit System) is our primary agenda. Since different campuses have different issues, we will be focusing on campus specific issues this time,” Angelica Aribam, national secretary of NSUI said.
The Congress student wing believes that the anti-incumbency of last one year will go against their main rival ABVP.
“ ABVP has failed to deliver in last one year despite having won all 4 key positions and you can confirm it with DU students,” Angelica added.
Interestingly, NSUI shrugs off any threat from CYSS in these elections.
“ CYSS is media hype only. People are falling for them because media is giving them undue coverage. The kind of money AAP is spending in favour of CYSS is unprecedented. The Talkatora concert was one such example where they spent huge amount of money. Can you believe this was the party that promised to clean the system?” Angelica added.
