Delhi University students on Friday cast their votes to elect a new union in a poll which will decide the fate of 41 candidates. Tight security arrangements have been put in place and Electronic Voting Machines were used for the polling. “As many as 943 EVMs have been pressed into service. There are 111 centres for the college elections and 130 for DUSU,” said Chief Electoral Officer Gurmeet Singh.

A total of 11 candidates are contesting for the post of DUSU president in the election, while 30 other candidates are vying for the three posts of Vice President, Secretary and Joint Secretary.

In coordination with Delhi Police, security arrangements have also been made, and a police picket will be in place outside every college where centers are located.

Interestingly, the electioneering was quitest and cleanest for this year’s DUSU poll.

The presidential candidates for this year’s DUSU elections are: candidates include Jitender Choudhary of ABVP, Harish Choudhary of NSUI, Shweta Raj of AISA, Aparajiths Raja of AISF, Sachin Kumar Dalal of INSO and Sunand of SFI, among others.

Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) has fielded two girl students in the election while National Students Union of India (NSUI) restricted itself to one.

ABVP and NSUI have not fielded any woman candidates for the President while All India Students Association and AISF have put up woman candidates.

The DUSU elections are bastion of ABVP and NSUI till 2009 but left back students union AISF is confident of winning the DUSU election 2010. Last year AISF lost the presidential election by just 11 votes.

Over 95,895 students are expected to cast their ballots in the election.

The campaigns that used to be pasted on the walls earlier are now being carried out on blogs and social networking sites. Taking the lead is the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

A letter to the Chief Election Officer has been posted on the blog detailing the criminal record of Harish Chaudhary, NSUI president candidate for the September 3 polls. The letter further mentions the name of the FIR number and the police station where the case has been registered.

Demanding cancellation of his nomination, Jitendra Chaudhary, the ABVP said, “There is no way to prove that we had fudged with the FIR copy as it was registered way back on September 15 last year. The FIR No. 379 was recorded at Mansarovar Park police station.”

Further after last year’s rejection of various candidatures for DUSU polls for not following the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations, student bodies this year are playing safe. Instead of printed banners and posters, they are heavily trying to reach out to young voters through social networking sites, blogging and SMSes.

The ABVP has already instituted an IT cell consisting of 6-10 members, enthusiastically working to promote their agendas. Archrival NSUI and other parties are making efforts to woo their vote bank through posts on social networking sites.

All the candidates have also been allotted 10 minutes of time on the local DU community radio channel for promoting their agendas.
Polling for the DUSU elections will be held on September 3 between 8.30 am and 12.30 pm for day classes, and 3 to 7 pm for evening classes.

The candidates for the Delhi University election have hit the campaign trail, but with last year’’s disqualifications heavy on their minds they said they will exercise extra caution so as not to violate the poll code of conduct in any way.

Last year the candidature of NSUI and ABVP members were cancelled. The candidates disqualified were Deepak Negi and Umesh Tomar of NSUI and Rohit Chahal, Lalit Kumar and Ashok Khare of ABVP. Negi and Chahal were candidates for president’s post. While Tomar was aiming for vice-presidentship, Kumar was a candidate for the post of secretary and Khare for joint secretary.
As per the allegations, their candidature was cancelled after the five were found spending more money than the stipulated Rs 5,000 each.

This year, the candidates are extra cautious to make sure last year’’s blunders are not repeated.

The NSUI and ABVP announced their candidates for the September 3 Delhi University Students Union election, as the last date for withdrawing of nominations ended today leaving 41 contestants in the fray. Harish Choudhary, a student of SGBT Khalsa College, is NSUI’s candidate for the post of president while Jitender Choudhary of MA (Budhist Studies) will be his rival from the Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad.

A total of 11 candidates will compete for the post of president in the election which will see a total of 30 other candidates vie for the three posts of Vice President, Secretary and Joint Secretary.

For the post of Vice President AA Vardhan Choudhary of NSUI will be in direct contest with ABVP’s Priya Dabas.

Gurmeet Singh, DU’s Chief Election Officer, said a total of 190 students, including 53 for president and 47 for vice president, had filed nomination papers on Tuesday, but after withdrawal by many and disqualification of some 41 remain in fray.

“Out of this 11 are for President, 10 for Secretary, and 9 each for Vice President and Joint Secretary,” he said.

Over one lakh students are expected to vote in the Sep 3 Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) polls, a university official said Thursday, adding that campaigning in cars in the campus has been banned this year.

‘Fifty-one colleges in both the north and south campuses will go to poll Sep 3. A total of 875 electronic voting machines and 354 vote totalling machines will be used to smoothly carry out the process,’ Gurmeet Singh, Chief Election Officer, told mediapersons.

In addition, 12 control rooms headed by principals will keep a vigil on the elections, he added.

Candidates have been barred from campaigning in cars, or using drums and other musical instruments, the official said.

No posters, stickers or banners would be allowed to be put up on walls and cars. Only handmade posters can be pasted, that too at select places, Singh said.

‘The code of conduct has been given to all the candidates and all of them have to strictly adhere by it,’ said Singh.

The morning colleges would be voting between 8.30 a.m. and 12.30 p.m., while evening colleges will vote between 4 to 8 p.m.

Fifty-three candidates  filed their nominations for the post of the President of Delhi University Students Union election, which will be held on September 3. The Chief Election Officer of DUSU said besides 53 names received for the post of President, 47 students filed nominations for the post of Vice President, 43 for Secretary and 47 again for Joint Secretary.

While four candidates of National Students Unions of India filed their nominations, 10 students of its rival Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) submitted their papers.

NSUI, which for the first time picked up its four candidates through an election process instead of nominations, said it would come out with a detailed manifesto on Friday.

A group of girls belonging to Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) organised a rally at north campus of Delhi University to protest against the unsafe atmosphere and growing incidents of sexual exploitation of girl students. Prior to the rally, a function was organised in which the BJP women cell national president Smriti Irani was chief guest.

She warned the college authorities to ensure safe campus for girls. ABVP national vice president Dr Payal Maggo said ABVP is a national organisation of students which celebrated 60 years of its existence last year.

National Student Union of India (NSUI) has announced that it will reserve a seat each for an SC/ST and woman candidate.The DUSU elections will see contestants running for president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary.

The move is unprecedented, especially since DU students have of late shown a tendency to vote individuals based on their caste and regional identities.

Also from this year, instead of being nominated, candidates for the four DUSU posts will be chosen by an electoral college of NSUI delegates from various Delhi University institutions.

“Nominations are to be filed by aspiring candidates on Sunday. About 400 delegates from various DU colleges will vote for their candidates on Monday,” said NSUI general secretary Mohd Shahnawaz Choudhary, who looks after the Delhi State Unit. The last date for filing nominations for the DUSU elections is August 24.

The delegates were chosen last November when the elections to the NSUIs Delhi state unit had taken place. An observer from the J M Lyngdoh-headed Foundation for Advanced Management for Election, which supervises NSUI and Youth Congress elections, will be present during the Monday’s election.

Delhi Gurudwara election and administration minister Arvinder Singh Lovely said the government had no plans to introduce reservation for ’scheduled caste’ Sikhs in Gurudwara prabandhak committee elections. Replying to the issue raised under ’special mention’ in Delhi Assembly by his namesake and colleague Arvinder Singh, MLA from Deoli assembly segment and son of former Union minister Buta Singh, Lovely said the Sikh religion does not differentiate on the basis of caste.

Earlier, the Deoli MLA said on the lines of Assembly or Parliament elections, there should be reservation for ‘SC Sikhs’ in the Gurudwara elections.

With allegations of corruption plaguing the Commonwealth Games, Congress President Sonia Gandhi on Thursday said those found guilty will be punished after the event.

Terming the Commonwealth Games as a matter of national pride, she said the Games were not related to any political party or individual. “It was a matter of national pride and efforts should be made to hold them successfully.”

At the same time, she said that those found guilty of corruption in works related to the Games should be punished after the event.

Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) here, Gandhi referred to the Group of Ministers set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to look into the preparations for the Games.

Gandhi also expressed concern over the situation in the Kashmir Valley and said efforts should be made to reach out to the people of the region.

She appreciated the Prime Minister’s initiative in this regard.

Gandhi insisted on the need for taking tribal development seriously over the issue of Naxalism. She also stressed on the need to check illegal mining.

Gandhi  said illegal mining has emerged as the “most serious menace” in a number of states affected by tribal deprivation and Left wing extremist violence.