DU students’ union polls: Is it even harder to win the match inside than outside?

As the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) election draws near, the Delhi University, especially North Campus, witnessed a barrage of posters filled with various names of the potential candidates of one party. Interestingly, these posters have a competitive story of their own which is connected to a bigger and more vulgar politics panning out in these student organisations, as revealed by a source in ABVP.

The logic behind advertising so many individual names from a single party is that before the nominations are filed and the official candidates contesting the elections are announced, there is a rat race for those election tickets which are up for grabs to the “most popular and most visible personalities of the past year.” Therefore, the endless posters and pamphlets contain nothing but the name of individual aspirants. As rich as these candidates are, a number of large hoardings and luxury cars draped in the aspirant’s posters is a common sight on the roads of Delhi. The allegation of election tickets being given to the highest bidder in both ABVP and NSUI is nothing new.

The source further said the aspiration to contest elections and the criteria of popularity among the leadership prompts them to indulge in acts which makes them a talking point among media and through which they stake their claim to candidature by showing the amount of indulgence in the party. This results in the various cases of violence being waged against Left wing student organizations as well as acts of disrupting seminars and cultural events, all to come into the eye of the leadership and be able to contest elections.

But what about the foot soldiers, the cadre of these parties? While answering this question, another interesting revelation was made by an ABVP supporter on the condition of anonymity. He said that most of the members indulge either in everyday violence or on large scale violence (referring to the Ramjas incident) not because they have any special affiliations to the party or to the elected candidates. Rather, some of them are there for fun as during the campaign, they get to move around colleges freely and can tease girls or beat up somebody, while many of them are there because they are paid to campaign for the student claiming candidature.

The details revealed by the sources point to how candidates get picked for DUSU elections. The requirements for candidature may vary from parties to parties though!