India - Noted Students Union Sweeps Delhi University Elections

[Dinesh Agrawal]

Date: October 2, 1992
From: Dinesh Agrawal
Source: Times of India, September 20, 1992

ABVP Nearly Sweeps DUSU Elections.

New Delhi, September 19: Mr. Avdesh Sharma, of the Akhil Bhartiya Parishad
(ABVP, Student wing of BJP), is the new president of the Delhi University
Student Union (DUSU). The ABVP also bagged the posts of secretary and joint
secretary. The post of vice-president went to the National Students Union of
India (NSUI, Student wing of Congress).

Sharma defeated his nearest rival Shushmita Dev of the NSUI, and daughter of
the Union minister of state for steel, Mr. Santosh Mohan Dev, by over 2000
votes. The NSUI's Archana Sharma, the new vice-president, beat her nearest
rival by over 4000 votes. The ABVP's Monica Kakkar and Atul Gangwar are the
new secretary and the joint-secretary - both won by handsome margins.

The ABVP has improved its position from two seats in the 1991 union, the
NSUI had drawn blank then. The union was dominated by the anti-Mandal group
led by Rajiv Goswami. There were no elections in 1990 due to the anti-Mandal
agitation. In the 1989 union, the ABVP made do with only one seat losing the
rest three to the NSUI.

The 1992 president-elect attributes his victory, and that of his party, to a
cadre-based organization and campaigning. Also, to "our year-round work" he
adds. Sushmita, the losing NSUI president candidate, says lack of the very
same attributes in the NSUI game plan cost her the seat. Besides, "some of
them (in her own organization) were working against me", she alleges. But she
has accepted defeat, saying "Avdhesh is a more mature politician".

Avdesh, a DUSU veteran - vice-president in 1989, says his first priority is to
refurbish the image of the DUSU soiled by corruption and inefficiency. The
"Save Campus, Save Education" slogan, he adds, will be the umbrella policy.

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