Violations galore as campaigning picks up for DUSU polls 

Violations galore as campaigning picks up for DUSU polls 

A candidate cannot spend more than ₹5,000 on campaigning and should use only handmade posters or pamphlets to reach out to voters during the student union polls. These were among the guidelines the Lyngdoh Committee had laid down in 2006 for fair and transparent polls to student bodies across the country.

However, these norms were never followed as the use of money and muscle power has become integral to the polls, according to members of major student outfits that are contesting the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) polls slated for September 27.

As the campaigning has picked up, every nook and corner of the north campus of the university could be found littered with pamphlets and posters defacing campus walls.

A printing vendor said a flex board may cost from ₹200 to thousands of rupees, depending upon its size.

A tea vendor on Chhatra Marg said he was shocked to see the amount of paper being wasted on campaign material. “Students are not allowed to deface university walls with posters, so they avoid doing it during daytime. They paste posters in the night,” he said.

Mandavi, a member of the Krantikari Yuva Sangathan (KYS), which is not contesting the elections, said the use of money and muscle power has become a hallmark of the DUSU polls.

However, members of the RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parished (ABVP) and the Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) tried to brush aside the criticism, terming it a “nature of the DUSU elections”. “Those who miss out on it face the risk of losing the polls,” a student leader said.