DUSU Elections: 7 months on job, AAP takes campus test

While student leaders of the ABVP and the NSUI, traditionally trading posts between each other in the DUSU panel, admitted the CYSS had raised the pitch, they alleged the student wing was using “unfair advantages” with the aid of the state government.

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Senior AAP leaders said given the party’s “historic” win in February, other political parties were waiting for them to slip up in Delhi and the “DUSU polls are in that sense their first test”.

“Even if these are only the Delhi University elections, the BJP and the Congress are both desperate to bring the AAP down. This is the first electoral test for the party and given that the student wing is entirely new to student politics, they are being given support from the party,” a leader said.

Leaders also said that this election was important symbolically, to dispel any doubts that the AAP was here to stay in Delhi’s political fold.

“There are some opponents who still dismiss the party as one that will not last. Entrenching ourselves in the Delhi University elections will also be another step in increasing the legacy and prove that we are here to stay. To that end, we have largely used the same tactics, naming candidates early and using person-to-person contact through volunteers,” a leader said.

Saket Bahuguna of the ABVP said that the CYSS was using “government muscle” and “unprecedented money power”.

“We firmly believe that because of the performance of our panel and the big steps taken by the present union, such as its contribution in the rollback of FYUP, we are on top in this election. But the CYSS has changed the atmosphere of the elections. Never before has there been the influx of so much money and the involvement of a political party like the AAP. They have used their influence and money, even public funds to campaign. Just before the elections they opened a DU special bus, and there were CYSS posters everywhere,” he said.

The NSUI sounded similarly confident of victory in the elections, and said that the organisation was concentrating on bringing up the failure of the AAP government on several issues during their tenure.

“Students are aware of these facts and we have been getting support. Our leadership including Ajay Maken, Roji John and Girish Chodankar met the Vice-Chancellor with a memorandum on how the Aam Aadmi Party is misusing its influence in violation of the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines. We will bring this up in the campaign as well,” said Saurabh Poddar, spokesperson for the NSUI.