The Hindu : Front Page : A clean sweep for Congress at Delhi University

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Sep 04, 2005

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A clean sweep for Congress at Delhi University

Lakshmi B. Ghosh

HAPPY HOUR: The winners of the Delhi University Students' Union elections with Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her residence on Saturday.

NEW DELHI: Defying all talk of an anti-incumbency factor playing a major role in the battle of the ballot on the campus, the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI) made a resounding comeback to the Delhi University Students' Union on Saturday, sweeping all four central panel seats up for election.

Demolishing arch-rivals Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) backed by the BJP hands down, the NSUI victory was yet another reminder of the strong hold that the Congress has come to acquire once again on Delhi University student politics over the past five years, winning the presidential post four times.

While NSUI's presidential candidate Ragini Nayak cruised home polling 13,447 votes, her nearest contender was ABVP's Sundar Dagar, who polled 9,212. In what initially seemed a keen fight, the early hours of counting saw Dagar leading by a huge margin, but Ragini managed to not just catch up but eventually win by a good margin of 4,235 votes.

Perhaps the only seat on which NSUI was leading right from the beginning, Amrita Dhawan's victory in the election for the post of vice-president came as a surprise to few, with the Bharati College student polling the highest number of votes for NSUI: 17,483. Emerging as the strongest winner of the election, Amrita clearly had little opposition, with the ABVP candidate managing to poll only 4,933 votes.

For the DUSU secretary's post, NSUI's Ramit Sehrawat polled 9,230 votes, with ABVP's Ajay Kumar coming in second with 6,360. Samajwadi Students' Front candidate Archana Yadav polled 4,395 votes and Arjun Arya of the Indian National Students' Organisation 4,577.

Closely fought, the election for the post of joint secretary saw NSUI's Deepak Chaudhary polling 9,939 votes against 8,215 of ABVP's Gargi Lakhanpal. With the early hours of the day showing NSUI in troubled waters, there was tension in the air. The Congress seemed to have already settled for a divided verdict, but the last hour of counting turned things in its favour bringing the good news. By all indications the sweep came as a surprise to the party, with the usual celebrations missing from the counting centre at New Police Line. Usually a big affair with hundreds of supporters joining in, Saturday saw the NSUI celebrations in a low key.

For ABVP, which had seemed confident of clinching at least two seats, it seemed time for introspection.

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