PU student elections: NSUI rebel Anurag Dalal pips all in presidential race
This is for the first time that an Independent candidate has been elected to the PUCSC president’s post; Dalal, who had filed his nomination as an Independent after the NSUI went with another candidate, defeated his closest rival Prince Chaudhary of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) by a margin of 303 votes.
National Students Union of India (NSUI) rebel Anurag Dalal had the last laugh as he clinched the president’s post in the Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC) elections held on Thursday.
Dalal, who had filed his nomination as an Independent after the NSUI went with another candidate, defeated his closest rival Prince Chaudhary of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) by a margin of 303 votes.
This is for the first time that an Independent candidate has been elected to the PUCSC president’s post.
The presidential race had nine candidates, and Dalal and Chaudhary were clearly the favourites, securing 3,433 and 3,130 votes respectively.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)’s Arpita Malik finished third, securing 1,114 votes while Tarun Sidhu of Students Organisation of India (SOI) followed with 1,061 votes.
NSUI’s pick, Rahul Nain, meanwhile got just 501 votes, making it the party’s worst-ever performance in the last decade. Last year, Jatinder Singh of the NSUI had won the PUCSC president’s post by a margin of 603 votes.
Others who secured less than 1,000 votes include independent candidate Mukul Chauhan (613 votes), Sarah Sharma of PSU Lalkaar (221), Alka of Ambedkar Students Forum (205) and independent candidate Mandeep Singh who polled 14 votes. As many as 187 votes also went to the none-of-the-above (NOTA) option.
NSUI bags vice-president’s post
The NSUI, however, had something to celebrate as its vice-presidential candidate, Archit Garg of the PU Human Rights department, won the seat with 3,631 votes. His closest rival, Karandeep Singh of Sath, secured 2,596 votes. Singh is from the same department as Garg. Last year, the Sath party had won the vice-president’s seat.
Others on the panel
For the secretary’s post, Vineet Yadav of Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) got 3,298 votes against Jashanpreet Singh of Students Organisation of Panjab University. Vineet Yadav is from University Institute of Legal Studies while Jashanpreet is from University Institute of Applied Management Sciences. INSO had a tie-up with CYSS while SOPU was in an alliance with winning presidential candidate Dalal. This is the third year in a row that INSO has won the secretary’s post.
For joint secretary’s post, Jasvinder Rana of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) got 3,489 votes against Rohit Sharma of Himachal Pradesh Students Union.
Out of the 15,856 eligible voters, 10,558 came out to vote, taking the voting percentage to 66.6%, up from 65.8% last year. The voting percentage is the highest this year since 2016 when it was at 67%.