NEW DELHI: The first phase of polling for four position of Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) ended on Thursday, amid allegations of EVM malfunctioning and denial of entry to some candidates.
There are 16 candidates in the fray and 52 polling centres have been set up. Over 1.3 lakh students are eligible to cast their vote.
Polling began in morning colleges at 9.30 am and ended at 1 pm. Polling in evening colleges commenced at 3 pm and will end at 7.30 pm.
Thirty-eight per cent voter turnout was recorded across 17 booths in the North Campus where 400 police personnel were deployed to prevent any untoward incident, police said.
Senior Congress leader JP Aggarwal also visited North Campus around 11.30 am to canvass for candidates of the student wing of the party and interacted with young voters.
“#Dusu elections, campaigning in favour of #NSUI candidates at various colleges along with other #Congress member .. #Vote4NSUI #NSUI2311 @NSUIDelhi @nsui,” he posted on Twitter.
Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) claimed its joint secretary candidate Abhishek Chaprana was refused entry to polling booths in Dyal Singh College in South Delhi. The student outfit also claimed that Chaprana was “illegally detained”.
The police said Chaprana was canvassing for votes outside the college which was not allowed. When he was asked not to do it, he “misbehaved” with policemen and had to be detained, they said.
The outfit also alleged that an EVM malfunctioned at a college.
Ruchi Gupta, NSUI national in-charge tweeted, “Again, in Aryabhatt college, EVM is malfunctioning as usual AGAINST NSUI. When ballot is pressed for NSUI candidate, EVM does not light up to indicate registration of vote. Our rep is getting more details. “
An election committee member said the votes were being cast but there was some problem with the light that glows. The EVM was replaced, he said, adding 152 votes had been cast.
NSUI’s secretary candidate Ashish Lamba was not allowed to enter Ramjas College after the ABVP alleged that he had brought some outsiders with him.
The police said that no untoward incident was reported during polling which was peaceful.
At Kirori Mal College in Delhi University, three students, two men and a woman, tried to cast votes a second time by using the IDs of their friends, a college official said.
The disciplinary committee of the college will take a decision on what action to take against them next week, he said.
Out of the 16 candidates in fray, there are only four women in contention, while two of them are contesting independently.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has fielded Akshit Dahiya for the post of DUSU president, Pradeep Tanwar for the vice president’s post, Yogit Rathee for the general secretary’s post and Shivangi Kherwal for the post of joint secretary.
The National Students Union of India (NSUI) has pitted Chetna Tyagi against Dahiya and Left-backed AISA’s Damini Kain for the post of president.
The NSUI has fielded Ankit Bharti for the vice president’s post, Ashish Lamba for the secretary’s post and Abhishek Chaprana for the post of joint secretary.
Last year, the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad had won three posts while the NSUI won one post. (AGENCIES)
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