NSUI mulls approaching HC after alleged rigging in DUSU polls

Alleging discrepancies in the election process of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU), the Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) is planning to knock the doors of the Delhi high court. In the election held on September 9, NSUI was able to win only one seat in DUSU’s central panel.

“The NSUI has decided to approach the High Court in the hope of finding justice, to restore our faith in democracy and to expose the corruption behind the electoral process of Delhi University,” said Nigam Bhandari, general secretary, NSUI.

NSUI members were shown video recordings of the counting process on Wednesday by the poll panel grievance cell. “In the video recording, the camera was focused only on just 1-2 machines and didn’t show all the 12 tables wherein 140 machines were being counted. We are dissatisfied with the video recording as no transparency could be established by looking at just 1-2 cameras. Moreover, the NSUI candidates were given the already prepared machine-wise data,” added Bhandari.

In this year’s poll, RSS-supported Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) won three posts — president, vice-president and secretary — in the panel. Mohit Garid was the only NSUI’s candidate to get elected in the panel for the post of joint-secretary.

After the result was announced, NSUI alleged that the poll results were rigged and sat on dharna at the Faculty of Arts from Saturday. Meanwhile, just across the spot where NSUI was sitting in protest, ABVP activists led by DUSU president Amit Tanwar, staged a protest near Dean of students’ welfare office to demand more hostel seats and bus services in the campus. NSUI members said that the protest was organised to distract the attention from their serious issue.