NEW DELHI: While the spotlight of the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) remained on the battle between ABVP, NSUI, Independent candidates and the Left alliance (SFI-AISA), an unexpected force quietly made its presence felt: the None of the Above (NOTA) option. With a staggering total of 23,942 votes polled across the four main posts, NOTA emerged as a powerful voice of discontent among University of Delhi students.
Many students stated that they voted for NOTA just to prove that muscle and money power are not everything. Last year, 23,674 students had voted for NOTA. This year, for the post of Vice-President, 4,359 NOTA votes were polled. The highest NOTA count was for the Secretary post (7,884), followed closely by Joint Secretary (7,389), while for the post of President, as many as 4,359 students voted for NOTA.
In some posts, the None of the Above count exceeded the votes of major candidates from alliances like SFI-AISA and even other contenders. For instance, in the Joint Secretary post, NOTA votes were higher than what B. Parajit from the SFI-AISA alliance secured, while in the Secretary post, the NOTA votes were more than what ASAP’s Pankaj Kumar secured.
