From Arun Jaitley to Ajay Maken, here are a few former DUSU presidents who made it big in politics
The presidency of the Delhi University Students’ Union has served as a launchpad for many political leaders in the national capital.
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Arun Jaitley became the DUSU president in 1974, and Maken, in 1985. (File Photo)From Arun Jaitley to Ajay Maken, the presidency of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) has served as a launchpad for many political leaders.
Jaitley, the late veteran BJP leader, was elected DUSU president in 1974 during the politically charged Emergency era. An Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) candidate, his tenure was marked by a resistance against authoritarianism. Decades later, as Union finance minister, Jaitley spearheaded transformative economic policies, including the introduction of the Goods and Services Tax (GST). Six years after he won the president post at DUSU in the 1970s, Jaitley joined the BJP.
Another ABVP stalwart, Vijay Goel, who served as DUSU president in 1977, also carved a niche in Delhi’s political scene. Goel was the former Union sports minister and a four-time Member of Parliament.
The younger generation of ABVP leaders includes Nupur Sharma, who was DUSU president in 2008. Sharma became the BJP’s spokesperson but was suspended from the party over her alleged comments on the Prophet.
From the Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), Maken stands out as a trailblazer. After serving as DUSU president in 1985, Maken rose through the ranks to become a Union minister by holding charge of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty in 2012-13. Maken was elected as a member of the Delhi Assembly after he won the DUSU president post in 1985.
In recent times, Rocky Tuseed, who won the DUSU presidency in 2017 as an NSUI candidate, was given a ticket to contest the Delhi Assembly election from the Rajinder Nagar constituency in 2020. Though he finished third behind the Aam Aadmi Party’s Raghav Chadha, Tuseed remains one of the recent DUSU leaders to have contested a major election. Tuseed is now serving as national secretary of the Congress’s youth wing.
The DUSU election threw up a split verdict this year with two seats each on the central panel going to the NSUI and the ABVP. The NSUI clinched the coveted post of president as well as joint secretary, ending its seven-year dry spell at the helm of the students’ union.
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