Independent candidate wins DUSU polls

An Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad-backed independent candidate was on Saturday elected as the president of the Delhi University Students Union, defeating his nearest Left rival, while the Samajwadi Party's students wing recorded its maiden victory in the elections to the four-member body.

Manoj Chaudhary became the first independent candidate after a gap of 18 years to bag the DUSU president's post in an election which saw the National Student's Union of India and the ABVP contesting only for the posts of secretary and vice president respectively, as their candidates for the other three slots were disqualified for violating the code of conduct during electioneering.

Though ABVP's Kriti Wadhera and Arshdeep Kaur of NSUI won today, they have been served notices for violating the code of conduct and their election is subject to the outcome of an enquiry against them.

A student of Department of Buddhist Studies, Chaudhary, who was backed by the ABVP, defeated Bajinder Singh (Department of Buddhist Studies) of the All India Students' Federation by 11 votes to clinch the top DUSU post. He got 5,391 of the total 28,981 votes polled for the eight candidates in fray for the president's post.

The Samajwadi Party's Chhatra Sabha, a relatively new entrant in the DUSU elections, won the joint secretary post as its candidate Anupriya Yadav got 9,007 votes and defeated Students Federation of India's Natasha Narwal who polled 6,020 votes.

Wadhera, a student of Miranda House, was declared the vice-president of DUSU as she defeated her nearest rival Anurag Sharma of the Department of Buddhist Studies by 2,546 votes.