Over the years, DUSU elections have been accompanied by a flood of campaign material. Posters, banners, and flyers plastered on every available wall, pole, and surface on campus. The Delhi University Administration, in its quest to curtail the ever-growing splandour of posters during the DUSU elections that infest the infrastructure of campus, has given a set of anti-defacement guidelines to the contesting parties this year. The move comes as part of a larger effort to reduce the poster overload that takes over the university’s infrastructure each election season.
Regurgating this stance at a sensitisation programme organised under the Swachhata Hi Seva 2025 initiative, Prof Yogesh Singh told the NSS volunteers and NCC cadets that, “We will not vote for the candidate who has more printed posters.”
He urged the studentsto de-incentivise candidates from resorting to posters and make them “afraid of doing any defamation”. He further emphasised that keeping the campus clean is a year- round responsibility and not limited to days of drive.
The programme, with DU Registrar Dr. Vikas Gupta, Dean of Colleges Prof. Balram Pani, and other officials in attendance, slipped in a pledge against drug addiction. Prof. Singh, meanwhile, likened the challenge to the Yamuna’s pollution, a reminder that the youth hold the mop and bucket for a “developed” India.
In 2024, the Delhi High Court had directed the university to ensure all campaign graffiti and posters were removed before vote counting could begin. The court made it clear that the exercise was “corrective rather than punitive” and ordered that results, originally scheduled for September 27, be declared only after DU submitted an affidavit confirming the clean-up. The outcome was eventually announced in November.
This year, the administration has gone an extra mile to enforce the new guidelines by making the candidates sign a 1 lakh bond to ensure no violations in addition to signing the anti-defacement affidavit. This sort of strictness is only comparable to the anti-ragging policy.
Whether these efforts will actually bore fruit is yet to be seen as Delhi University awaits its (in)famous election season, the timeline of which was released recently. For now, at least we have an idea of where the administration stands in midst of it all.
Image Credits: Ayushmaan for DU Beat
Yashika Jain
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Read More: DU Issues Anti Defacement Measures; Mandates Rs. 1 Lakh Bond Rule For DUSU Poll Candidates
