DUSU campaigning heads to finish line with clean campus, reform promises

New Delhi, Sep 16 (PTI) Campaigning for the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections, marked this year by a strikingly clean campus under strict anti-defacement rules, will conclude at 8 am on September 17, with polling on September 18 and counting the next day.

Unlike previous years, when the walls of North Campus were covered in posters and graffiti, this election season has seen a visible change. The university administration, enforcing the Lyngdoh Committee guidelines strictly, has kept the campus free of defacement.

“We are happy that this year no defacement is visible in the campuses, which used to be our major problem,” DUSU Chief Election Officer Raj Kishore Sharma told PTI.

The election committee has received over 25 complaints and issued nine show-cause notices to seven central panel candidates.

According to the election officer, Delhi Police have issued over 800 challans to regulate vehicle movement, while more than 500 personnel, including paramilitary forces, are deployed to maintain law and order. “Cancellation is easy. We can cancel the full elections. But we are teachers; our way of work is educative and not punitive. It is in the interest of students and democracy that elections take place,” Sharma said, underlining the committee’s reformist approach.

This year’s campaign is notable not only for its cleaner walls but also for the issues shaping the discourse. The three main contenders — the RSS-affiliated ABVP, the Congress-backed NSUI, and the Left-supported SFI-AISA alliance — have placed reforms, inclusivity and student welfare at the heart of their manifestoes.

Nearly two decades after DU last had a woman president, the spotlight has also returned to women contenders. Both NSUI and the SFI-AISA alliance have fielded female candidates for the top post, who are raising demands around campus safety, menstrual leave and stronger gender sensitisation mechanisms — adding a new dimension to this year’s contest.

ABVP’s presidential candidate Aryan Maan, a Library Science student from Bahadurgarh, Haryana, has promised subsidised metro passes, free Wi-Fi, accessibility audits and upgraded sports facilities. “Our goal is to make DU’s student politics a model where ideas, not money, decide elections,” he said.

NSUI has fielded Joslyn Nandita Choudhary, a postgraduate student of Buddhist Studies from Jodhpur, who is campaigning on issues such as shortage of hostels, demand for reading spaces, campus safety and menstrual leave.

“My aim is to make Delhi University more inclusive, affordable, and truly student-friendly,” she said.

The SFI-AISA combine has put forward Anjali, a student of Indraprastha College for Women, who is pushing for gender sensitisation, resistance to fee hikes and restoration of elected grievance redressal mechanisms.

“When we see issues around us and know who is responsible, we must fight,” she said.

This year, the electorate is set to swell with the inclusion of fourth-year students under the four-year programme. The chief election officer told PTI that the university is expecting an increase of about 50,000 voters compared to previous elections.

"The voter base used to be around 2.25 lakh, and this year we are expecting it to be about 2.8 lakh," he said.

This year’s polls are being held under strict measures against defacement of public property, in line with Lyngdoh Committee guidelines.

Last year, counting was withheld by the Delhi High Court until such defacement was cleared.

With cleaner campuses, tighter monitoring and manifestoes that go beyond rhetoric, this year’s DUSU campaigning appears to be drawing a line under the old style of poster wars.

As the clock ticks down to the silence period, the campus buzz has shifted to quieter, issue-based conversations — a contest where promises of reforms, not defacement, are taking centre stage. PTI MHS AMJ AMJ