The Hindu : New Delhi News : DU goes to polls today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Sep 07, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

DU goes to polls today

Staff Reporter

A total of 85,000 students to elect their representatives

750 electronic voting machines installed
Nine control rooms have been set up

NEW DELHI: Elections for the Delhi University Students’ Union and college unions will be held at 54 colleges across the Capital on Friday. The poll timings are from 8-30 a.m. to 11-30 a.m. for morning colleges and 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. for evening colleges.

Adequate security arrangements have been made at the polling booths and 750 electronic voting machines have been installed at the various centres.

“Though some outsiders were arrested for campaigning on behalf of some organisations, the situation is by and large normal. There are 85,000 voters and we expect a turnout of 40 to 50 per cent,” said Chief Election Officer Gurmeet Singh on Thursday.

Nine control rooms have been set up at various locations to check any untoward activity during the casting of votes. “In case of any malpractice by contestants or malfunctioning of the EVMs, students can approach these control rooms,” said Mr. Singh.

Thursday evening also saw student activists make a last-ditch effort to woo the voters. “The elections are over. It is a foregone conclusion that we are going to win. Our fight is only to better our previous margins of victory,” said National Students’ Union of India spokesperson Kuntal Krishna.

The NSUI panel comprises Amrita Bahri (president), Devraj Tehlan (vice-president), Manish Chaudhary (secretary) and Khushboo Sharma (joint-secretary).

“The NSUI is afraid that we may sweep the elections,” said Rajiv Ranjan, spokesperson for Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, adding that “our candidates have been working throughout the year and they will surely reap the benefits in the voting”.

Mr. Ranjan said his party was satisfied with the recommendations of the Lyngdoh Committee but the “pick and choose” policy that had been adopted was a “little partial”.

The ABVP panel is Abhishek Tandon (president), Suman Lata (vice president), Renu (secretary) and Manvendra Singh (joint-secretary).

True to the ideology of the parent party, Albeena Shakil of the Students’ Federation of India said: “We have proved that elections can be contested without spending an obscene amount of money. For our campaigning we used only hand-crafted posters, pamphlets and leaflets.” The SFI is contesting two posts: Harish Dubey (secretary) and Ambika Rai (joint secretary).

Indian National Students’ Organisation representative Amit Sahni said: “Though we are backed by a regional party, we are hopeful of a good result.” INSO has fielded candidates for all four positions – Mohammed Akhtar Ali (president), Samridhi Sharma (vice-president), Dinesh (secretary) and Rohtash Chaudhary (joint secretary).

Another organisation in the race is Youth for Equality which has fielded Divyanshu Asopa for vice-president and Disha Pannu for secretary.

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