Poll campaign: Student wings relying more on social media than pamphlets

Delhi University students’ bodies have welcomed the July 18 National Green Tribunal (NGT) order, which sought to move electioneering in Delhi Student Union elections to paperless canvassing within two months.

The university polls are to be held in September and student unions are doing their best to invent new ways of reaching out to the students. The student wings of various political parties are drawing battle plans by focusing more on social media campaigning and relying more on their volunteers to reach to students of more than 50 colleges of Delhi University. 

“Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP),the BJP’s student wing, has been already campaigning from last two years to use less paper during elections. The court order is a welcome step and we are ready to fully embrace it. Although, the 5-day campaigning time is too little and that too with limited amount of campaigning tools will make our job tough but we will step up our campaigning through massive use of social media and our volunteers,” said National Media Convenor of ABVP Saket Bhahuguna.

While Kumar Raja, national vice president of the National Students Union of India, (NSUI) said, “NSUI welcomes the order of the NGT and we are looking forward to paperless environment-friendly elections this year. Last year, NSUI had issued a circular to its campaigners to resort to less use of papers during elections. NGT’s order confirms the eco-friendly principle that NSUI believes in.”

“The Lyngdoh Committee recommendations stipulate that the expenditure on campaigning should not exceed Rs 5000 per candidate. In this context, the reckless use of pamphlets and posters by spending huge amount of money was not possible. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) welcomes the spirit of NGT’s order but I think some amount of paper use should be allowed as as it’s an effective mode of reaching out to the students,” said Vikram Singh, General Secretary, SFI.

NGT on July 18 had ordered Delhi University to restrict the sticking posters at only certain notified places in the campus. The court had also ruled to enforce Lyngdoh Commission recommendations and to take steps to move towards paperless campaigning in student elections within two months.