Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) election results were declared on 13 September, and there was bad news in store for NSUI, the student wing of the Congress party. Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) swept the elections by bagging three out of the four posts, including the president’s designation.

The posts of president, vice-president and joint secretary have been occupied by the ABVP, while National Students Union of India (NSUI) managed to gain the post of a secretary. Soon after the final round of counting, Ankiv Basoya was declared the president of DUSU with 20,467 votes. The margin of victory is 1,744 votes.

Shakti Singh is the new vice-president with 23,046 votes and NSUI’s Akash Choudhary got the secretarial responsibility with 20,198 votes. Jyoti Choudhary is the new joint secretary with 19,353 votes.

DUSU president-elect Ankiv told ANI, “I want to thank the workers of ABVP who have worked on the ground throughout the year. More than half of the DUSU budget will be spent on women and SC/ST students. Our priorities also include 24x7 libraries, Metro concession passes among others.”

Mid-way during counting, Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) allegedly stopped working, causing a delay in the process of result declaration. NSUI national president, Fairoz Khan, sceptical of EVMs, said, “There are only eight candidates. How is it possible that votes were cast to a 10th candidate? All the machines were fine yesterday. Police and administration are involved in this.”

Election Officer Manoj Kumar clarified that the EVMs did not belong to the Election Commission, but it was likely that the university had procured them privately.