Polling for four positions of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) is underway at 52 polling centres on Thursday, with 16 candidates in the fray and over 1.3 lakh students eligible to cast their votes.
The polling began at 9.30 am. Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India claimed its joint secretary candidate Abhishek Chaprana was denied entry to polling booths in Dayal Singh College in south Delhi.
The student outfit claimed Chaprana was illegally detained. Kunal Sehrawat, former Vice President of DUSU and NSUI member said that police detained Chaprana for 2-3 hours, "We don't know why he was not allowed to go inside the college, candidates are allowed inside especially because there are always issues like late polling, counting and we have to ensure nothing like that happens. What they are doing is very wrong."
However, police said he was canvassing for votes outside the college, which is not allowed. When he was asked not to canvass, he "misbehaved" with policemen and had to be detained, police said. Sehrawat said he suspects the BJP-affiliated ABVP had something to do with his detainment, "We are allowed to campaign but not within 10-20 metres of the college."
Out of the 16 candidates in the fray, there are only four women in contention, while two of them are contesting independently.
The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya 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.
