The BJP-backed ABVP, repeating last year's triumph, took home three of the four seats in Delhi University's Student Union (DUSU) on Saturday, while the Congress' youth wing NSUI snatched the presidential spot.The ABVP - running high on an anti-corruption platform taking advantage of the spillover from Anna Hazare's protests - was widely expected to win, but the election of NSUI's Ajay Chhikara as president put a slight damper on the saffron celebrations across the university.
The BJP Youth Wing had come to power last year, when it won three seats, including the presidential spot and broke an eight-year NSUI hold on the DUSU. Ajay, from the law centre, tallied 11,164 of the total 30,859 votes for the 14 presidential candidates on offer.
Defeated ABVP candidate Neha Singh, from the department of Buddhist studies, managed to get 8,802 votes.
Speaking after the poll results were announced, Neha said her party planned to challenge the outcome because there were irregularities with the turnout numbers.
"I believe there was some manipulation of the votes. It's not clear how there was 30 per cent voting in the morning even though it was raining hard," she said. "We plan to file an RTI application and find out what we can, and we will also lodge an official complaint." Although three of the four posts will be occupied by ABVP candidates, president-elect Ajay said he expected they would all be able to work together.
"The president is the key DUSU post, and we are happy we won the election on that front," he said.
"There is no problem with having three people from the other side… it's a democratic thing. I'm sure we'll be able to work with each other." ABVP supporters roamed the campus waving saffron flags and dancing to hired dhol players in an impromptu victory march after the final tally was announced. The supporters then converged at the Arts Faculty, at the statue of Vivekananda, and shouted slogans.
"This is a victory against corruption. This is a win for us," ABVP state secretary Rohit Chahal said later.
"The rains on the voting day were a problem. They stopped a lot of voters otherwise I'm sure we would have got the president's post also." The NSUI supporters were more subdued, even though the party had grabbed the top post.
The Congress Youth Wing had been expected to lose after Hazare's protest prompted widespread anti- Congress sentiment.
"There are some things we have to look into, some deficiencies we have to address," Ajay said. "We can't pinpoint what went wrong right now, but we'll have time to sit down and look into the matter later." The incoming administration of the DUSU, which oversees student concerns across the 51 university colleges, will also be the first allmale group in a few years because the NSUI's secretary candidate, Parag Sharma, the only other female contender in addition to Singh, lost out to ABVP's Vikas Yadav.
The vice-president's post went to Ram Lal Anand College's Vikas Chaudhary, while Deepak Bansal, from the department of Buddhist studies, picked up the joint secretary spot.
