New Delhi, Sep 21 (IANS) The recent Cockroach Janta Party (CJP)-led students’ protest at Jantar Mantar failed miserably in influencing Delhi students who overwhelmingly backed the ABVP and rejected the obsolete Left ideas despite Abhijeet Dipke-driven agitation, said a study that analysed DUSU election results.
Released on Monday, the study titled “Delhi University Student Union Election Comparative Study 2023 to 2026” said the university’s students remained loyal to the nationalist and India-first ideology and the AISA-SFI alliance was unable to convert street presence into ballot support, despite the Left's visible participation in the year's broader Gen Z/CJP mobilisation.
Pointing towards a complete rejection of the obsolete Left ideas by DU students, despite the CJP agitation, the study noted that in 2026, the All India Students' Association-Students' Federation of India (AISA-SFI) alliance’s combined vote share remained at 9.18 per cent, and two of its candidates polled below NOTA.
“The Left has been unable to secure a single central-panel seat or surpass 12 per cent for the past three years, indicating that DU students still perceive it as a fringe, ideologically exhausted force rather than a credible alternative, despite the volume of its agitation,” said the study.
The study said that the turnout in DUSU elections is highly sensitive to process integrity and disruption. “The steep drop to 34.7 per cent in 2024-25 coincided with a nearly two-month, court-ordered delay in result declaration over campaign defacement complaints; turnout recovered over the following two years as enforcement of anti-defacement rules tightened.”
In the just-concluded DUSU elections, the RSS and BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad beat Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on three out of four DUSU posts of President, Secretary and Joint Secretary. The Vice President’s post was won by an Independent.
ABVP leader Yash Dabas won the President's post, Riya Chhawadi won the Secretary's post, and Lakshya Raj Singh won the Joint Secretary's post. Independent candidate Deepanshu Shokeen won the Vice President’s post.
--IANS
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