Delhi University Student Union Elections Conclude

For the past eight weeks, Delhi University (DU), the largest University in the country, saw its students union elections after a gap of four years. Delhi University Student Union’s (DUSU) politics has been traditionally dominated by the NCR landlord class which finds partisanship in either NSUI or ABVP, which is influenced by caste-based social engineering. DUSU is known for a money and muscle politics seen nowhere else due to the sheer expanse of the University across Delhi.

This election being the first since lockdown, a major challenge was thrown at the progressive forces among students. AISA came out of lockdown through the movement for reopening of Delhi University and the ongoing movement against the Four Year Undergraduate Programme (FYUP) and NEP 2020.

AISA has been a valiant third front in the DUSU elections by presenting a radical alternative to the hooligan politics of ABVP-NSUI. This time too, AISA presented a strong third front in the DUSU election which saw an unprecedented level of expenditure and flagrant violations of the Lyngdoh Committee Recommendations. There were repeated instances of violence and intimidation on AISA activists. Aman, a law student and AISA activist, was abducted and beaten by ABVP campaigners who mistook him for Aditya, AISA’s Secretary Candidate.

AISA’s candidates, Aiyesha Ahmad Khan (President), Anushka Chaudhary (Vice President), Aditya Singh (Secretary) and Anjali Kumari (Joint Secretary) braved violence and intimidation to fight the election on the central issue of the Four Year Undergraduate Programme, which has completely obliterated the quality and accessibility of education in Delhi University. AISA polled a respectful vote despite dire and challenging circumstances: 3,335 votes for the post of President, 3,492 for Vice President, 3,884 for Secretary and 4,195 for Joint Secretary.

Comrades of AISA Delhi University have taken up the new challenge of facing the fascist onslaught of FYUP-NEP on DU with utmost spirit and resolved to keep on the fight for student welfare, democracy and freedom on campus.