The RSS-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad has won three of the four key posts in the Delhi University students' union elections, but the Congress-supported NSUI also claimed victory after winning just one seat.
“What loss? We did win one seat,' Akshay Lakra, the NSUI Delhi president, said.
When asked why the NSUI lost two years in a row, Lakra said the NSUI was up against a Modi-Amit Shah-RSS wave this time. 'You must understand who we are fighting at a time when there’s a Modi-RSS-Amit Shah wave in the entire country. They (the ABVP) have good finance. Even teachers were campaigning for ABVP candidates on the campus, holding their hands. So we were fighting them,' he said. Another challenge he cited was that 'Shivangi Kharwal, the daughter of an MCD councillor' was fighting for the ABVP. 'See, we had nothing to lose. And we were fighting a formidable force,” Lakra told this website. 'ABVP used its money and muscle power. They were giving movie tickets to students. They made good use of their money,” he said.
The NSUI leader then pointed to the mother ship. “Let’s accept this. We don’t have a Congress head in Delhi. The whole organisation is in crisis. Its okay but we were still ready and went ahead and gave them a good fight.'
Akshit Dahiya, the president-elect of DUSU, said that the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir's special status did help the ABVP. He claimed that NSUI’s opposition to Veer Savarkar’s bust on the campus contributed to its loss in the election.
“Article 370 is a matter of nationalism. No nationalist student would agree for its imposition again. Students will never accept anyone disrespecting martyrs. This victory is victory of nationalist ideology, you can say that,” Dahiya told reporters after his victory was announced.
The Delhi University students' election is counted among the keenly watched campus battles. ABVP won it for the second consecutive year, winning the post of president, vice-president and joint secretary. The secretary's post went to NSUI.