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elections 2012

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Ritu Rana from ABVP who stood for the post of President giving an interview accusing NSUI of foul play soon after the results were out

“ABVP calls Delhi University to be closed on Monday, 17th September because of unfair means in calculation of votes in DUSU elections”. This is the message that was widely circulated on Sunday nights, causing wide absenteeism in colleges on Monday.

In what is being regarded as a highly imprudent move, the ABVP is busy garnering attention and public support because they feel that the DUSU elections vote counting process was rigged.

‘I think they are being too egoistic, they should just accept that they have lost and move on”, says Professor Prachi, of the English Department, Hansraj College.

As commonly known by now, ABVP lost the elections as NSUI sweeped the polls to victory. Subsequently, the former accused DU of using unfair means to calculate votes but strangely did not file an application requesting a re-counting of votes. “It’s stupid, if they so strongly believe that the elections were rigged, they should have filed an application immediately, rather than engaging in hooliganism”, says Vaishali, a student of Hansraj college.

This move by the ABVP was also not very successful as classes went on as usual in most colleges, where no reports of ABVP stalling classes was reported. However, the ABVP activists were able to make their presence felt in colleges like KMC and Ramjas, where the activists stormed into classrooms and demanded that the students leave the classrooms, thereby disrupting normal college routine.

“They just entered into our classes even when our professors protested. They did not let the class continue.”, says Nupur, a student of Ramjas college.

While no new move has been introduced on part of ABVP, speculations are that they will not raise this issue further, because of lack of evidence and also since they don’t want to spoil their party image.

After the spirited build-up on the speech day that took place on Thursday, students, unaffected by the rains that lashed the city, turned up to vote for their favoured candidates on Friday at SRCC. The candidates standing for various posts, were representing three respective panels, namely, the Hosteliers Panel, led by Rajan Chhabra, the Day Scholars’ Panel, captained by Prateek Handa, and the “V” Panel led by Vivek Jain.

The EVM results of posts for College President, General Secretary, and DU Central Councillors came out at around 2 in the afternoon, which saw Rajan Chhabra’s panel winning with a hands-down 4-0. The students winning the posts were Rajan Chhabra for College President, Ajay Kiraan for General Secretary and Amitabh Paul and Hari for DUSU CCs.

The results for the respective societies came later, and the Hosteliers’ Panel couldn’t have been happier as they won all the possible posts, bringing the statistics to 16-0.

The winning candidates were Bhanu Pratap and Priyamvad Yadav for President and Secretary respectively, Economics Society, Abhishek Vyas and Chandan Dhand for President and Secretary, English Literary Society, Satrajeet Mukherjee and Ankana Ghatak for President and Secretary, Fine Arts Society, Prajwal Bimali and Rahul Kothari for President and Secretary, Commerce Society, Ashish Mohanka and Kanika Gupta for President and Secretary respectively, Hindi Sahitya Sabha and Vardhman Jain and Lalit Chopra for President and Secretary, History and Political Science Society.

While Prajwal Bimali received the highest number of votes polled, a whopping 1112, Kanika Gupta won her post with the highest margin.

A visibly jubilant Rajan Chhabra mentioned in his speech, “We have worked hard in the past, and promise to work even harder in the future. Also, we have no hard feelings for anyone from the opposite panel, and we appreciate their efforts.”

An emotional Bhanu Pratap quoted, “It was a roller coaster ride, full of twists and turns, but those who were truthful to themselves, emerged as winners. We are looking forward to taking Ecosoc. and Srcc to greater heights.”

“What followed the announcement of the results was pure hysteria. The campus resonated with cheers of “Kunde hoye!” a South Indian victory song of sorts adopted by the hosteliers. The winning team was seen showering each other chips, supporters of the winning panel were dancing on the tables in the canteen,  it was crazy!”, informed Priyansha Saxena a student.

There were also a few verbal spats here and there, but no serious aggression was seen.

While the running helter-skelter convincing people to vote, almost spamming our inbox with vote appeals and general sweat and toil paid off for some, others had to face dejection, but what was noteworthy was the spirit with which the elections were contested.

Vatsala Gaur
[email protected]

Picture credits: Swadha SIngh