New Delhi, Sep 21 (PTI) Voting in Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections are set to take place on Friday after a gap of three years. Twenty-four candidates are in the fray for four posts -- president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary.
Prominent students' groups contesting the DUSU polls are RSS' students wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI), CPI (M)-backed Students' Federation of India (SFI) and CPI (ML) Liberation-affiliated All India Students' Association (AISA).
Here are profiles of candidates fielded by major outfits
NSUI:
It has fielded Hitesh Gulia, a final-year Law Centre-I student, for the president's post. The 23-year-old has completed his graduation from Shaheed Bhagat Singh College.
Abhi Dahiya is contesting for the post of vice president. The 24-year-old is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Buddhist studies.
The NSUI has fielded 24-year-old Yakshana Sharma for the post of secretary. The Hindu College graduate is a final-year LLB student at the Campus Law Centre.
Shubham Kumar Chaudhary, contesting for the post of joint secretary, completed his schooling from GD Goenka School in Vasant Kunj. He completed his graduation from the College of Vocational Studies and is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Buddhist studies.
ABVP:
It has fielded Tushar Dedha for the president's post. Dedha completed his graduation from Satyawati College. He is pursuing Masters in Buddhist studies. He joined the ABVP in 2015.
He won the election for college cultural coordinator at Satyawati College in 2016. He was also an executive council member at DUSU.
Sushant Dhankar, the ABVP candidate for the vice-president's post, holds a BA (Honours) degree in English, having graduated from Satyawati College. The Haryana native is currently pursuing Masters in Buddhist studies. Dhankar is also a state-level shooting champion.
The RSS' students wing has fielded Aprajita for the post of secretary. She hails from Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh and completed her BA (Honours) degree in history from Dyal Singh College. She is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Buddhist studies.
Sachin Baisla, the ABVP candidate for joint secretary, graduated from Ramanujan College. He is pursuing a Masters degree in Buddhist studies.
AISA:
Aiyesha Ahmad Khan filed her nomination for the post of president, Anushka Choudhary for vice president, Aditya Pratap Singh for secretary and Anjali Kumari for joint secretary.
While Aiyesha Ahmad Khan is a student of Miranda House College and hails from Patna, Anushka Choudhary is a student of the Law Faculty at Delhi University and is a resident of Bahadurgarh in Haryana.
Aditya Pratap Singh entered the university in 2019 and has been an AISA activist since then, and Anjali Kumari is a first-year student from Miranda House.
The DUSU elections will be held on September 22 after a gap of three years. The elections were last held in 2019.
SFI: Arif Siddiqui has been fielded by SFI for DUSU president. Arif, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Kannauj district, has completed his graduation from Zakir Hussain College and is currently enrolled in Masters in Buddhist Studies.
Ankit Birpali is its candidate for the vice president's post. He is a first year student of Campus Law Centre. He has completed his graduation from Hindu College.
Aditi Tyagi, a student of MA Philosophy, is in the fray from SFI for the post of secretary. She has completed her graduation from Hindu College.
Nishtha Singh is the candidate for the post of joint secretary. She is from Bihar.
The students' union elections could not be held in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19, while potential disruptions to the academic calendar prevented their conduct in 2022.