Festive mood on DUSU polling day

With polls coinciding with Ganesh Visarjan, students were seen dancing to drumbeats and smearing each other with colour; ABVP, NSUI share spoils
Students queue up to cast their votes at Miranda House in North Campus on Thursday. There was heavy security deployment to ensure hassle-free polling. (Photo | EPS/arun kumar)
Students queue up to cast their votes at Miranda House in North Campus on Thursday. There was heavy security deployment to ensure hassle-free polling. (Photo | EPS/arun kumar)

NEW DELHI:  With the Delhi University Students’ Union elections coinciding with individual college elections and Ganesh Visarjan processions, the varsity’s North Campus was swept by a festive mood with students dancing to drumbeats while playing with colours. With a huge number of students approaching their polling stations in the early hours of the day, the second half didn’t see much crowd but the announcement of college election results kept the energy high.

Many trucks, laden with Ganesh devotees headed to immersion ghats, passed by, causing snarls amid heavy deployment of CISF, north Delhi Police and traffic police throughout the polling hours. Outside polling stations, supporters of the two major student groups —RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Congress’s National Sudents’ Union of India — could be heard screaming the names of their candidates.

Even though the posters from the six walls of democracy were removed, ABVP supporters distributed small pamphlets outside the centres with names of their candidates. The wastage of paper during DUSU elections is business as usual yet some AISA supporters expressed their disapproval of it.“I voted for AISA as they don’t believe in any show of money and power. They don’t waste paper,” one of them said.

The results for students union elections for the colleges came out on Thursday evening, while the counting of votes for DUSU polls will start at 8.30 am. on Friday. As soon as the results were announced, winners broke into celebrations.

NSUI candidate detained
NSUI’s joint secretarial candidate Abhishek Chaparna was detained for canvassing for votes outside Dyal Singh College, which is not allowed. NSUI said that  Chaprana was “illegally” detained.

DUTA objects to high-rise at north campus
The Delhi University Teachers’ Association on Thursday condemned the construction of a 39 storey high-rise building in the varsity’s North Campus area. The DUTA has serious objections to the construction of 39 storey building for a group housing project on a plot of land that is adjacent to the Metro Station and within the North Campus of the University, DUTA President Rajib Ray said in a statement. The land near Vishvidyalaya Metro Station originally belonged to the Ministry of Defence and was acquired for construction of metro rail station by DMRC. Subsequently, the DMRC is alleged to have sold two-thirds of this land by granting perpetual lease to a private builder in the guise of property development.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The New Indian Express
www.newindianexpress.com