After HC rap, colourless, posterless DU ahead of student union elections
Rapped by the Delhi High Court for creating a mess with campaign materials last season, Delhi University is this year wearing a dull and dreary look ahead of student union elections.
As one walks from the Vishwavidyalaya Metro station towards the Arts Faculty on the campus, the absence of poll-time fervour, colour, flavour and posters for probable candidates is striking — a first in many years.
This follows Delhi University’s stricter rules against defacement of property and pasting of campaign material on varsity walls in the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections 2025.
A year ago, the same stretch was flooded with posters plastered on walls and strewn across roads, with candidates flaunting their presence and creating reels for social media using these visuals.
That is now passe. The DUSU campaign has in fact shifted online. Candidates are relying on social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and X, where multiple pages have been created to promote their bids for the elections.
One thing that remains the same is the use of high-end SUVs with the names of candidates written on both front and rear windshield. Such vehicles, all decked up with campaign signatures, can be seen parked near the DUSU office at the same Arts Faculty road.
Candidates are, meanwhile, yet to be finalised by all students’ organisations with some waiting for a final talk on alliance prospects.
Some others have already started campaigning.
When The Tribune correspondent visited the Arts Faculty today, candidates, along with supporters, were seen canvassing on foot, engaging each student individually, just to announce their arrival on the DUSU poll landscape.
Speaking with The Tribune on strategy for DUSU elections, Ravi Pandey, chairman, National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) Media Department, said the organisation would take forward their leader Rahul Gandhi’s ‘vote chori’ campaign in the university.
“In the previous elections, we designed campaigns around ‘Mohabbat ki Dukan’, and this time we will make students about the ‘vote chori’ campaign,” Pandey added.
On the probable candidates, he said the organisation would hold meetings and take feedback from ground to finalise candidates for the four central posts – president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary.
“Rahul Gandhi talks of less representation for backward, minorities and women in the RSS regime in the country. Our selection will reflect the representation of such communities,” Pandey said.
Meanwhile, All-India Students’ Association (student wing of the CPIML) is in talks with like-minded organisations (Student Federation of India and All-India Students’ Federation) for a probable alliance in the DUSU poll. Anjali, an AISA activist, said talks were on for an alliance with other organisations to defeat the money and muscle power of the ABVP in the university.
“Last time we contested in an alliance with Left-affiliated organisations, and this time too, talks are on. A big victory for us is that posters and pamphlets, which deface the property of the university, have vanished. We had been raising the issue for a long time,” she added.
ABVP’s national media chief Harsh Attri said by the end of this week, the RSS student body would release the names of probable candidates and also form manifesto panels.
On the manner of campaign, Attri said the ABVP would choose college to college canvassing with placards in hands and try and target every department.
The DUSU polls will be held on September 18, and candidates have started doing rounds in their respective organisation offices to secure a ticket for themselves.
HC sought undertaking from candidates last year
Last year, the Delhi High Court had directed candidates from the DUSU elections to submit an undertaking promising not to deface public property in the future. This decision was part of an effort to hold the candidates accountable for the mess created during the election campaigns and grant them additional time to clean up the university campuses.
In the last elections, Ronak Khatri was elected as the president, Bhanu Pratap Singh as the vice-president, Mitravinda Karanwal as the secretary and Lokesh Choudhary as the joint secretary.
Delhi