Around 42 percent students exercised their franchise in the morning phase of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections on Friday, with the election office yet to finalise the poll percentage of the evening phase later at night.
Chief Election Officer for DUSU elections D.S. Rawat told IANS: "In the morning leg of the polls, around 42 percent students exercised their franchise. The voting went off peacefully in the morning shift which started at 8.30 a.m."
"The voting percentage for evening shift of polls which took place from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m., will be declared late in the night as we are still compiling the data obtained from the colleges. We are yet to receive the poll percentage from many colleges to get an exact overall figure," he told IANS.
Rawat further said that the election went off peacefully.
"We had deployed 23 observers to keep a tab on the elections. Videography of the DUSU polls was being done and CCTV cameras also set up at the polling centres to conduct the elections transparently," he said.
"The counting of votes will start tomorrow (Saturday) after which the results will be declared," he said.
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Thousands of students voted on Friday to elect new office bearers of the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) as well as in their respective colleges.
Hitherto, the NSUI and the ABVP, the student wings of the Congress and the RSS, respectively, used to dominate the student polls in Delhi University.
But this year, the Aam Aadmi Party's students wing, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) jumped into the largely dual contest in the DUSU polls.
CYSS claimed that they were in a strong position.
The AAP organised a star-studded rock concert on September 1 at the Talkatora Indoor Stadium where Kejriwal had candidly urged Delhi University students to support CYSS for its "honest and clean" politics.
"Arvind Kejriwal's wave is sweeping across the campus. He is known for his clean image and honest politics. We are sure of a glorious start in student politics," CYSS vice-president Anmol Panwar told IANS.
There are a total of 1,35,298 voters in Delhi University. Voting for the DUSU polls was scheduled in two phases at 50 polling centres set up at 42 colleges and eight departments in the varsity.
Students participated in the DUSU election enthusiastically.
The campuses were buzz with excitement as students waited in queues outside the polling booths for their turn to cast their vote. Many of them were also spotted taking selfies.
"I am very excited as this is the first time I am going to vote in DUSU polls. Candidates from all the student outfits approached me to vote for them but I will go with the candidate who can solve the problems students face in university," Niharika, a B.A student at Hindu College, told IANS.
Rollback of Choice Based Credit System (CBCS), right to accommodation, clean student politics, women security and transport problems in the university dominated DUSU polls this year.
To avoide any untoward incident heavy police force was deployed in the university campus.
The agents of different student outfits, backed by various political parties, tried their level best to woo the students and persuade them to vote for their candidates.
ABVP Delhi unit secretary Saket Bahuguna told IANS: "A good crowd was seen at the polling centres. We had campaigned well and reached out to the students with student-friendly issues. We hope that they must have voted for ABVP. I am confident of our victory."
A total of 35 candidates are in the fray for the four posts -- president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary -- of DUSU office-bearers.
While nine of them are in the race for the post of DUSU president, eight are fighting for the vice-president's seat.