3 min readNew DelhiSep 6, 2012 01:35 AM IST
First published on: Sep 6, 2012 at 01:35 AM IST
Despite parties like Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and National Students Union of India (NSUI) holding top posts in Delhi University Students’ Union for many years now,left students’ organisations have failed to join hands to form an alliance to contest the elections this year.
Last year,two Left-wing parties — All India Students’ Federation (AISF) and Students’ Federation of India (SFI) — had formed an alliance but were unable to win the elections. On August 24,all left students’ organisations had jointly protested against DU’s decision to introduce meta-concept courses,the semester system and the four year undergraduate programme.
Despite this,these parties were unable to iron out their differences and provide a third alternative to the students of Delhi University.
According to Amit Kumar,the Delhi Secretary of AISF,the alliance could not be formed this year because of “internal issues”.
“Last year,there were certain weaknesses in the alliance due to which the campaign suffered. While the issues raised by the Left parties — problems faced by Hindi-medium students,lack of hostels,etc — in Delhi University are similar,there are differences,mostly ideological,over larger issues like the Presidential elections and the economic policies. These have prevented the formation of an alliance,” he said.
Elaborating on the “internal issues”,Kumar said he was referring to the internal split in the SFI-JNU unit among other things.
SFI members said the other parties might have felt that the SFI unit in DU was not very strong. “The sense that we got during talks with AISF and AISA was they think that SFI was weak this time. Moreover,they were connecting the DUSU elections with that of JNU,” said Sumit,the SFI state president.
According to All India Students Organisation,“mutual distrust” was also a restraining factor.
“There is a certain amount of mutual distrust that prevents the formation of an alliance,” Sunny,a member of AISA,said.
Raising another major concern Sunny said,“Our party members are mostly undergraduates and they work hard for the party. Despite this,if they do not get to contest for high posts in the elections then their morale goes down.”
Party members also drew a comparison between the elections in JNU and DU. Sumit said,“Unlike JNU,which is a closed campus,the elections in DU are influenced by the local politics. Moreover,when compared to ABVP and NSUI,we are smaller parties and that has an impact on the outcome of the polls.”
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