DUSU polls: Less than half morning college students turn up to vote

Less than half of the students of morning colleges of the Delhi University cast their ballots on Wednesday to elect their representatives in the student union for next one year.

The polling was conducted for morning colleges in both North and South Campus colleges between 8.30 a.m and 1 p.m, while polling for evening colleges started at 3 p.m and continued till 7.30 p.m.

"Everything remained peaceful in the first round of voting. There was no incident of any EVM glitch anywhere," Chief Election Officer Vijay Kaul told IANS.

The total voting percentage for morning colleges -- which form bulk of the 58 colleges affiliated with the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) where polling happened -- was 43.87 per cent, according to the university official.

In all, over 450 Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) were used for colleges in both campuses for students to cast their ballot. The voting percentage for the evening colleges could not be ascertained since the EVMs were still coming to the counting centre from various locations until late in the evening.

After a poor performance in 2015, the student wing of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), has joined the fray this year by partnering with leftist group All India Students' Association (AISA), affiliated with CPI-Marxist-Leninist.

The other two strong groups in contention for the four central panel posts of President, Vice President, Secretary and Joint secretary are the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Although there are several contenders, Ankiv Basoya and Sunny Chhillar of NSUI and ABVP, respectively, are betted to be the strongest ones for the post of President. The two groups have in the past also kept the four posts between them.

Abhigyan, a Political Science student, is the presidential candidate from the CYSS-AISA alliance.

--IANS

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