Election season kickstarts in DU,final list of candidates released

After withdrawals and disqualifications,only 14 out of the 77 students who had filed nominations to the president’s post remained in the final candidate list. Nine students out of the 60 who had filed nominations for the vice-president’s post are on the final list. Ten students will contest to the post of Secretary and eight to the post of joint-secretary.

Neha Singh,an MA Buddhist Studies student is the presidential candidate for ABVP,which won last year’s DUSU elections. The organisation is fighting this election raising the twin issues of corruption and the need for more colleges in DU,starting with the setting up of evening colleges in existing North Campus colleges.

National Students’ Union of India (NSUI),the other main player,has issued a charter demanding everything from the setting up of a ‘Center for Entrepreneurship Development’ at the University to the inclusion of DUSU office bearers in the University’s Committee against sexual harassment. Ajay Chikkara,a final-year student at the Law faculty is NSUI’s presidential candidate.

Students Federation of India (SFI) and the All India Student Federation are fighting the elections together with Soumya Guliyan,a student of BA Sociology at Miranda House College as their presidential candidate. Amit Srivastava,an MA Political Science student is All India Student Association’s (AISA) presidential candidate.

Tight security arrangements were made on Thursday morning in and around the Dean of Student Welfare’s office which is functioning as the Elections office. The road in front of the elections office as well as gate number three of the University were closed for a few hours in the morning. Extra police force was deployed and entry to the Elections office strictly restricted.

Party supporters gathered in front of the Elections office to launch the election campaign as the final panel of candidates came out of the Elections office after confirming their nominations. Supporters of the two largest parties competed with each other,trying to raise their candidates as high up in the air on their shoulder’s as possible without the pyramid tumbling down. One team had even hired stilt walkers to take rounds waving the party flag.

With only a week to reach out to their voters,student politicians said that they plan to split into different teams with an aim to cover all colleges in the University.