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Delhi

NSUI makes emphatic comeback in DUSU polls

NEW DELHI: Celebrations broke out at the Congress headquarters here on Wednesday after its student wing National Students Union of India (NSUI) recorded a remarkable win in the Delhi University Students' Union Elections, bagging the posts of president and vice-president, two of the four crucial posts.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), meanwhile, won the remaining two seats posts of joint secretary and general secretary.
NSUI's Rocky Tusseed will be the new DUSU president and Kunal Sehrawat the vice-president. ABVP's Mahamedhaa Nagar and Uma Shankar won the posts of secretary and joint secretary, respectively.
Tusseed was allowed to contest the DUSU polls only last week, after the Delhi High Court set aside an order passed by the varsity's Chief Election Officer to scrap Tusseed's candidature.
The importance of the DUSU polls for the Congress can be gauged by the fact that the party had appointed senior leader and advocate P Chidambaram to represent Tusseed in the case.
Meanwhile, NSUI has demanded recounting of votes for the joint secretary post, which it claims its candidate had won.
Tusseed won the president's post with 16,299 votes, while Sehrawat secured 16,431 votes to become vice-president.
On her way to become secretary, Nagar won 17,156 votes, while Uma Shankar got 16,691 votes to become joint secretary.
ABVP's presidential candidate Rajat Choudhary got 14,709 votes, and its vice-presidential candidate Paarth Rana secured 16,256 votes. Minakshi, NSUI's secretary candidate, got 14,532 votes, while joint secretary candidate Avinash got 16,349 votes.
In a close contest, ABVP was in a definitive lead till six rounds. The tide, however, began to shift towards NSUI and after 13 rounds it was a 2-2 contest.
By the last minute of counting, ABVP could only hold on to the posts of secretary and joint secretary, while NSUI emerged the bigger winners.
This is the first time NSUI has secured a DUSU post after 2012.
Another highlight of Wednesday's verdict was the inclination of students towards NOTA (none of the above) option. Over 29,000 students went with the NOTA option.
With 9,028 votes, NOTA was the third most-voted option for the polling for the joint secretary's post.
According to reports, far flung colleges recorded a poor voting percentage, while on-campus colleges had a healthier voter turnout.
While Hindu College with 65 per cent recorded the highest turnout, Aryabhatta College was among the lowest with 14 per cent turnout.
DUSU Chief Election Officer had made a special appeal asking students to vote in the elections. According to DU, of the 1,02,624 voters in the 40-odd DUSU affiliated morning colleges, 46,504 students turned up to cast their votes in the election on Tuesday
This year, voter turnout increased by almost 10 per cent compared to last year.
Started in 1954, students from 50 of 77 Delhi University colleges vote to elect office bearers to the positions of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary.
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