Right-Left share honours in DU Exec Council polls

Both the right and left on Sunday shared the two Executive Council seats in Delhi University. In the polls held on February 5 for electing teachers’ representative to the Executive Council, Left-linked Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) nominee Abha Dev Habib and BJP affiliated NDTF (National Democratic Teachers’ Front) candidate AK Bhagi and got elected to be its members.

Bhagi’s election marks the return of NDTF in the varsity politics. The results were announced on Sunday.

For the two seats of EC members, four people had contested the polls. Bhagi got 2,357 votes and Habib got 2,607 votes. The other candidates - Aditya Narayan Misra from Academics for Action and Development (AAD) and independent candidate SK Sagar got 2,142 and 337 votes respectively.

The Executive Council is the highest decision-making authority in the University. It is entrusted with ratifying or cancelling the decisions made by the Academic Council.

“Teachers have overwhelmingly expressed, through vote that the DU Vice-Chancellor and his team must go. They have voted for restoration of an independent voice of the teaching community, democratic decision making and for decisions based with due debate and discussion,” Abha Dev Habib told Millennium Post.

She further said that the teachers have also sent a warning to any further attempts at ham-handed academic restructuring.

With the elections, the main challenge of commitment is to fill up all the vacant positions, correct implementation of roster, promotions and pensions among the EC members.