DU students’ union polls: ABVP bags 3 key posts including president, NSUI wins just one

ABVP’s Kunal Chaudhary clinched the Secretary post with 23,779 votes, leaving NSUI’s Kabir far behind at 16,117.

Deepika Jha of ABVP won the Joint Secretary post with 21,825 votes, while NSUI’s Lav Kush Badhana secured 17,380.

In the Vice-President’s post, NSUI’s Rahul Jhansla secured 29,339 votes, defeating ABVP’s Govind Tanwar by over 8,700 votes.

Meanwhile, NOTA (none of the above) recorded over 7,000 ballots each for the Secretary and Joint Secretary races. In 2023, ABVP won the president’s post, while the NUSI bagged it in 2024.

The Delhi BJP also celebrated the success of ABVP candidates, terming it a victory of “nationalist ideology and spirit of service”.

“ABVP’s victory in DUSU is testimony to the unshakable faith of the student community in its nationalist ideology, spirit of service, organisational strength and dynamic leadership,” Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said.

BJP national president J P Nadda said its victory in key posts shows that the message of ‘Nation First’ is embraced by the young generation.

Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also congratulated the winners. “… This victory is not just of an organisation, but of every youth who considers patriotism, discipline, service, and struggle as the guiding path of their life,” Gupta said at the ‘Vikshit Bharat Ke Rang, Kala Ke Sang’ event.

With ABVP again controlling three of the four posts, the student outfit has consolidated itself as the dominant voice of the union.

NSUI’s win in the vice president’s contest — its strongest showing even in 2023 — shows that the Congress-backed outfit retains some influence.

The Left bloc, despite aligning under the All India Students’ Association-Students’ Federation of India banner, has remained on the margins.

Previous years’ trends

In 2024, ABVP had bagged two posts — Vice-President and Secretary — while NSUI secured the President and Joint Secretary posts. That year, the turnout sank to a low of 35.2%.

This year’s participation rebounded slightly, with 39.36% of registered students casting their ballots — though still below pre-pandemic levels, when DUSU often drew over half the electorate.

Turnout in DUSU elections has oscillated between 37% and 44% for most of the past decade, barring two notable dips: 36.9% in 2016 and an even sharper fall to 35.2% in 2024, the lowest of the period.
Participation rebounded after 2016, touching 43-44% in 2017-18, 39.9% in 2019, and 42% in 2023.

In all these years, the electoral outcome has been stable: the ABVP has dominated, sweeping all four posts in 2015 and taking three of four posts in 2016, 2018, 2019, and 2023.

In 2017 and 2024, the panel was split between ABVP and NSUI. There was no union between 2019 and 2023 due to the Covid pandemic; elections took place after a hiatus of four years in 2023.

A straight contest

Like most years, this year also saw a straight contest between ABVP and NSUI.

The ABVP bagged the president’s seat in 2016, 2018, and 2019 and 2023, while the NSUI got the post in the years 2017 and 2024.

Last year, NSUI’s Ronak Khatri defeated his rival Rishabh Choudhary from ABVP by 1,339 votes to bag the President’s post, while Lokesh Choudhary won the post of Joint Secretary by defeating ABVP’s Aman Kapasia by a margin of 6,726 votes.

ABVP’s Bhanu Pratap Singh and Mitravinda Karanwal were elected Secretary and Vice-President. They received 24,166 and 16,703 votes and defeated their rivals from the NSUI, Yash Nandal and Namrata Jeph, by a margin of 8,762 and 1,467 votes, respectively.

In 2023, ABVP’s Tushar Dedha defeated his rival Hitesh Gulia from the NSUI by 3,115 votes and became president. The ABVP also won the Secretary and Joint Secretary posts. The Vice-President post had gone to NSUI.

Meanwhile, the Presidential candidate fielded by the Left alliance this year, Anjali, got 5,385 votes against her name. This is a rise from last year, when its presidential candidate, Saavy Gupta, got 2,695 votes.

Its Secretary candidate, Abhinandana, got 9,535 votes against her name.