DUSU elections: Student parties declare candidates for Sept 12 polls

New Delhi, Sep 5: The student outfits on Friday declared their candidates for the four crucial posts in the keenly-contested

Students Union (DUSU) elections, which are scheduled to be held on September 12.

The Congress affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) has fielded Gaurav Tushir, a first year student of Motilal Nehru college for the post of President, Mona Chaudhury of Law faculty as the Vice Presidential candidate, Amit Singh Timma and Abhishek Chaudhury of Faculty of Arts for the post of secretary and Joint Secretary respectively.

While ABVP is trying to encash on the scrapping of Four Year Undergraduate programme (FYUP), which was on their agenda for the last years DUSU polls, NSUI is raising issues of right to accommodation and alleged racial discrimination against the students from North-East. BJP's Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has declared Mohit Nagar and Parvesh Malik of Buddhist studies as their Presidential and Vice Presidential candidate.

Those nominated by ABVP for the post of Secretary and Joint Secretary include Kanika Shekhawat of ARSD college and Ashutosh Mathur of Zakir Hussain College.

The Left-leaning All India Students Association (AISA) has nominated Madhurima Kundu of Hindu college, Aman Nawaz of Dayal Singh college, Aman Gautam of Sri Venketeshwara college and Vikramaditya of Buddhist studies, for the four posts.

The Students' Federation of India (SFI), Arunachal Students' Federation (ASF) and All India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) have come together this time to form an alliance called Left Students' Front (LSF).

LSF has nominated Vikram Singh, Prashant Mukherjee, Shrey and Deepak Jha for the four posts. A new student organisation called Chanakya Parishad has also entered the contest this year.

The candidates fielded by them include Aditya Pandey and Shahroz of Satyavati college for the post of president and vice president. Divyanshu Priyam of Hansraj college and Antriksh Rana of SGND Khalsa college have been nominated for Secretary and Joint Secretary.

The nomination process for the DUSU polls concluded on September 3 with the varsity declaring 144 nominations valid for the four posts.

While 37 nominations were found valid for the post of President, 32 nominations were validated for the post of Vice President. The nominations found valid for the posts of Secretary and Joint Secretary were 41 and 34 respectively.

Overall 12 nominations were rejected during their scrutiny. Nomination papers for the DUSU polls are accepted on the behalf of individuals and not as nominees of any outfit.

The candidates could withdraw their nominations by today afternoon. The polling will take in two phases (morning and evening) on Sept 12 followed by counting of votes on Sept 13 after which results will be announced.

Last year, the DUSU polls were swept by ABVP. While its Aman Awana and Utkarsh Chaudhary were elected president and vice president, respectively, Raju Rawat was elected as the joint secretary.

NSUI managed to win only one seat with Karishma Thakur elected as secretary.

PTI