The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), affiliated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), won three of the four top posts in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections on Saturday, while the Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) failed to win any of the posts.
ABVP’s Yash Dabas was elected president after securing 24,576 votes, defeating NSUI candidate Vijai Shankar Meena by 2,053 votes.
ABVP’s Riya Chhawdi won the secretary’s post, while Lakshya Raj Singh was elected joint secretary. The vice-president’s post went to independent candidate Deepanshu Shokeen, who secured 30,615 votes.
Shokeen had previously been denied a ticket by the NSUI and contested the election as an independent.
The result marks a setback for the NSUI, which had won the vice-president’s post in last year’s DUSU elections, while the ABVP had secured the president, secretary and joint secretary positions.
The results drew reactions from BJP leaders, who linked the outcome to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing youth outreach campaign, “Chhatron Ki Goonj”. Gandhi was addressing students in Indore on Saturday as part of the campaign, which was launched following the NEET paper leak controversy.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah congratulated the ABVP on its victory, saying the result reflected what he described as the “unwavering trust” of young people in the organisation’s “Nation First” ideology and its commitment to student welfare.
BJP national media co-convener Sidharth Yadav used the result to target Gandhi and the Congress, claiming that the DUSU outcome had rejected what he called the opposition’s “politics of lies, deceit and propaganda”.
“Today’s result (of the DUSU polls) is a tight slap on his face,” Yadav said, according to PTI, referring to Gandhi. He also described the result as “Gen Z’s mandate against Rahul Gandhi”.
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also criticised Gandhi, saying that despite Congress attempts to influence student politics through its “Jhooth Ki Goonj”, students had chosen what he described as an ideology of national interest.
Dabas, the newly elected DUSU president, also took a swipe at Gandhi, saying, “We want Rahul Gandhi to become even more involved in student politics, because the more involved he gets, the further NSUI declines.”
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