New Delhi: In a verdict which political pundits say reflects on the popularity of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, the BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) on Saturday swept the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections.
The ABVP won all four seats on offer with a margin of over 4,500 votes on each seat.
While Satinder Awana won the election to the post of DUSU president, Sunny Dedha will be the vice president for the next one year. Anjali Rana and Chhattarpal Yadav claimed the posts of secretary and joint secretary, respectively.
ABVP candidates were ahead ever since the counting of votes began this morning.
Candidates of the Congress-affiliated National Students Union of India (NSUI) finished second in terms of votes earned, while the Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) students wing - Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) - failed to leave any mark in its debut election.
Particularly, the CYSS' drubbing reflects the sentiment on AAP's performance in Delhi ever since it came to power in February this year, say experts.
Even AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal's campaigning for CYSS and Delhi government's announcement of student-friendly measures ahead of the DUSU polls did not help the party's student wing leave any mark.
"CYSS' efforts were confined to banners only. They were unaware of ground realities. We will remain among the students throughout the year and fulfill our promises," Awana, the newly-elected president, said.
"We did not consider them (CYSS) a challenge, since they did not talk of real issues, they benefited us in a way," he added.
Union Minister and senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, who began his political career at DUSU, took to Twitter to congratulate ABVP on their victory.
"Congratulations to ABVP & Students of Delhi University on winning the DUSU elections & making a clean sweep by winning all the four seats," he wrote.
BJP national president Amit Shah, also tweeted, "Heartiest Congratulations to all Parishad karyakartas on clean sweep in DUSU Polls. A victory of ideology #ABVPRocks".
Celebrations broke out with bursting of crackers and loud cheering at the counting venue in Kingsway Camp as the results were announced. ABVP supporters lifted their candidates on shoulders and posed for pictures flashing the victory sign.
Last year too, ABVP had swept the polls trouncing NSUI to bag all four seats.
Chief Election Officer for DUSU polls, DS Rawat, said Awana polled 20,439 votes defeating Pradeep Vijayran of NSUI who polled 14,112 votes for the post of president.
Dedha, a law student, defeated CYSS candidate Garima Rana by a margin of 7,570 votes.
The margin for the posts of secretary and joint secretary were 4,610 and 6,065 votes.
While Anjali Rana defeated NSUI's Amit Sehrawat to win the post of secretary, Chhattarpal Yadav bagged the joint secretary position defeating NSUI's Deepak Choudhary.
Voting for the DUSU elections had taken place on Friday and witnessed a 43.3 percent turnout, a slight dip from last year's 44 percent.
The polls were dominated by issues such as rollback of CBCS, security, transport and accommodation problems faced by varsity students.
The students council elections also took place in 42 colleges where NSUI won the five-member panels in 18 colleges while the ABVP emerged victorious at 13 colleges.
Both the parties won different seats in remaining colleges.
CYSS did not nominate any candidates for the council elections at colleges.
While DUSU is the representative body of the students from most colleges and faculties of the varsity, colleges have their individual students' councils.
(With PTI inputs)
