More students vote in tense 3-way contest in DU polls. Results today
In morning shift colleges and departments, the turnout was 43.8 %, slightly higher than last year’s overall polling of 43%.Counting will begin at 8 am on Thursday and results will be declared by the afternoon. Delhi University has not touched the 50% mark in the last six years.
Voter turnout rose marginally in Wednesday’s much-watched Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections — crucial for all political student groups as it will help them gauge the electoral mood among young voters ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
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The overall turnout was 44.5 %, highest in last 11 years. Counting will begin at 8 am on Thursday and results will be declared by the afternoon. Delhi University has not touched the 50% mark in the last six years. 54 colleges and departments are affiliated with DUSU.
Members of both the Congress’ student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI) and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidhayarthi Parishad (ABVP) said the elections were like “trial match” for them to set the stage for 2019.
The NSUI said it is considers the DUSU polls as an “election of prestige”. The ABVP is using the elections to promote the BJP’s schemes on campus.
Polling began at the morning shift colleges and departments at 8:30 am. Though turnout was low, 18.5%, in the first one hour, long queues were spotted after 11 am. “The turnout started increasing after 11 am,” an official said.
The electoral mood remained charged throughout the day. Members of all both groups were spotted distributing paper pamphlets. A few were detained for violating norms by canvassing outside the polling booths.
Around 1:30 pm, the doors were shut at all the booths and only students who were already in queue were allowed inside. The first half of the polling was wrapped up at 2 pm.
In some colleges, like Vivekananda College, polling started late because of a delay in arrival of electronic voting machines. This year, 23 candidates are contesting for the four posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary.
In the fray are NSUI, ABVP and the Left-backed All India Students Association (AISA), which is in an alliance with the Aam Aadmi Party’s Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS).
In the college panel voting, the ABVP and NSUI were locked in a close battle. NSUI claimed it had won more than 70 seats in 20 morning colleges. The ABVP said it had won 71 seats in 19 morning colleges. The AISA-CYSS alliance grabbed some posts in Miranda House, Ram Lal Anand, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, Ramjas and Hansraj.
The university had installed around 700 EVMs across 52 colleges and departments affiliated with DUSU. Polling was held in two shifts — 8:30 am to 1:30 pm and 3pm to 7:30pm.