ABVP's Bhanu Pratap Singh (left) and NSUI's Rounak Khatri (right).
Rounak Khatri, the presidential candidate of Congress-based National Students' Union of India (NSUI), has won the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) elections. The vice-president's post has gone to Bhanu Pratap Singh, the candidate of RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP). The DUSU results, originally scheduled to be announced on September 28, a day after the elections, were delayed due to a Delhi High Court order. The court had stalled the declaration of results until the defacement caused during the election campaign was cleaned.
According to news agency PTI, Khatri defeated ABVP's Rishabh Chaudhary by 1,300 votes. The joint secretary post has also gone to NSUI with Lokesh Choudhary winning the contest.
"The politics of performance has won in DU. Those who fought the election on false promises have lost. As a law student, I want to assure all the students in DU that we will stand with them," Khatri said after his election win.
"Our primary focus is to develop infrastructure. The changes that you have seen in law faculty, the same things will be implemented across the university," he added.
ABVP's Mitravinda Karanwal has won the election for DUSU secretary's post.
This is the first time after 2017 that NSUI bagged two of the central posts and saw victory in the president's position.
In total, 21 candidates were in the fray for four central posts. Out of these, eight contested the post of president, five vice-president, and four each fought the contest to become secretary and joint secretary.
The NSUI held the vice-president's post in the outgoing union while the ABVP held the remaining posts.
In the college-level elections, ABVP has achieved a clean sweep in five colleges, while NSUI won all positions in two colleges.
The key players in the elections were ABVP, NSUI, and the Left-alliance of the All India Students' Association (AISA) and Students' Federation of India (SFI).