DU, JNU to hold students union polls Friday

Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) will hold election for their student unions Friday.

The results of the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) election will be declared Saturday, while the results of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students' Union (JNUSU) polls are expected to be announced Monday.

The student body polls in the two prestigious universities are always a grand affair in the national capital.

In DU, the university authorities take care of the election process, while in JNU, the entire process is managed by the students, who form an election committee.

D.S. Rawat, professor of chemistry in DU, was appointed the chief election officer while Chandra Shekhar of the Persian department will be the chief returning officer.

The polling in DU will be held from 8.30 a.m. to 3 p.m. for day classes and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. for the evening classes. In JNU, the poling starts at 9.30 a.m. and will end at 5.30 p.m, with a lunch break in between.

In DU, there are seven candidates for the post of president, 32 for the post of vice president, 41 for secretary, and 34 for the post of joint secretary.

In JNU, seven are running for the post of president, five for vice president, and five each for general secretary and joint secretary.

In both institutions, the candidates are bound to abide by the Lyngdoh Committee provisions, which specified the modes of election, code of conduct and expenses to be incurred, among others.

The campaigning in both the universities ended Thursday and the famous presidential debate at JNU was held Wednesday.

The DUSU poll slugfest has always been between the National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the Congress' student wing, and the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

In the last election in DU, the ABVP bagged the post of president, vice president and joint secretary, with the post of secretary being taken by the NSUI.

Left-wing All India Students Association, Left Students Front, and the newly formed Chanakya Parishad are also contesting the polls.

Some of the main issues in the DU polls are hostel accommodation and problems faced by students from the northeast. Besides, all student organisations were taking credit of scrapping the controversial four-year undergraduate programme.

JNU has always been the stronghold of left-wing student organisations. Last year, the AISA bagged all the four posts.

Other Left organisations in the fray are the Students' Federation of India (SFI) and the newly formed Left Progressive Front (LPF), which is an alliance between the Democratic Students Federation, a breakaway group from the Students' Federation of India (SFI), and All India Students' Federation (AISF).

The NSUI and the ABVP have also fielded their candidates.

The main poll issues in the JNU are women's safety, hostel accommodation and infrastructures such as WiFi connections and medical health centres for students.

Over one lakh students from 50 colleges will cast their vote through the electronic voting machine in the DUSU polls.

JNU, however, will use ballot papers and this time students would also have the None of the Above (NOTA) option. For the first time, JNU introduced the other option in their nomination forms to accommodate the third gender.

While Delhi Police personnel will be deployed in DU for the polls, JNU's private guards will ensure a smooth election in the institute.