The ABVP, the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh, Thursday bagged three posts, including that of the president, in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections.
The NSUI, the student wing of the Congress, won only one seat.
ABVP’s Ankiv Basoya won the presidential post with a margin of 1744 votes while party’s candidate Shakti Singh was declared as the vice president after he won with a margin of 7673 votes. NSUI’s Akash Choudhary won the secretary’s post while ABVP’s Jyoti emerged victorious on the joint secretary post.
Basoya got 20467 votes while his rival NSUI’s Sunny Chhillar got 18723 votes. Singh received 23046 votes against NSUI rival Leena’s 15373 votes.
Choudhary, the lone winning candiadte of the NSUI, alleged that fair elections were not conducted and data of seven EVMs were missing.
The chief electoral officer in Delhi Thursday clarified that the EVMs used in DUSU elections have not been issued by the Election Commission and it seems to have been procured privately.
Earlier, the Congress-affiliated NSUI on Thursday alleged “gross irregularities” in the elections and demanded fresh polling.
The counting of votes resumed in the evening after nearly five hours.
The counting was initially stopped for an hour after the allegations of faulty EVMs surfaced. However, following objections by the students, the election officials decided to suspend the process.
“The polls are being held at the behest of the central government. The EVMs were tampered with. We want fresh elections,” Rocky Tuseed of the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) said earlier.
NSUI national in-charge Ruchi Gupta said, “NSUI was winning on the posts of DUSU president and secretary after six rounds of counting. Then six EVMs developed snag and the EC wanted to set those aside. How is it that the machines, which were working fine till yesterday have developed a snag during counting? Clearly some sabotage to help ABVP.”
The NSUI activist also accused the varsity administration of “inaction” on a complaint against Sangh-backed ABVP vice-presidential candidate Shakti Singh, who was purportedly seen accompanying an unruly crowd vandalising property in Zakir Hussain College ahead of the elections.
“Why no action was taken on the written complaint by NSUI as Shakti Singh who has been caught on camera on a rampage with his goons in Zakir Hussain college not disqualified,” alleged Gupta.
Shakti Singh said, “Only one EVM was faulty and it can be repaired. We want the counting to be resumed. Since we were leading on all the seats, the other parties are demanding fresh elections.”
The supporters of both the groups shouted slogans against the Delhi University (DU) administration and created a ruckus inside the counting centre.
“A fresh date for the counting will be announced soon,” an election officer for the DUSU polls said.
EVMs tampered with: ABVP
The ABVP, on the other hand, claimed that because earlier its candidates on all the four posts were winning the EVMs were tampered with.
With supporters hooting and raising anti-administration slogans—“DU professors murdabad murdabad, dictatorship nahi chalegi nahi chalegi, the ABVP demanded recounting of votes at the earliest.
ABVP leader Monica Choudhary claims 10-12 colleges in and around Kalkaji constitute her party’s stronghold and she expected good support for the ABVP.
“We have demanded that the counting be resumed after correcting all the glitches in a democratic manner,” Monica added.
What triggered the suspension: It was after the sixth round of counting when NSUI gained lead on the secretary post with its nominee Aakash Choudhary leaving behind arch-rival ABVP’s Sudhir Dedha in the race of secretary, the former pointed out that votes on the secretary post were being displayed on ballot 10 while there were only eight contenders for the post and the ninth ballot was NOTA.
The extra ballot on the secretary seat had secured over 40 votes while glitches were claimed in another EVM machine which recorded 480 votes on the presidential seat by the Congress’ student outfit. In total, student parties alleged around five EVMs to be tampered including the one with the extra ballot.
NSUI claimed the votes in both cases were crucial as they were from some colleges of South Campus where it believes to be having a sizable support base.
Amid chaos outside the DUSU election panel kept trying to strike a compromise in a meeting inside the counting centre with candidates representing various student groups. With PTI
