Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections were held earlier this month in which the student wing of Indian National Congress, National Students Union of India (NSUI) won the President and Vice President posts.
#DUSUelection2017: NSUI wins President and Vice President posts, ABVP wins Secretary and Joint Secretary posts
— ANI (@ANI) September 13, 2017
However, questions has been raised on the candidature of one Raja Choudhary, an independent candidate, who contested for the president post against ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad, student wing of the Rashtriya Sevak Sangh) candidate Rajat Choudhary.
If that is not enough, it’s even funnier that Raja Chaudhary belonged to Akhil Bharatiya VIDYA Parishad. And had a same logo as ABVP’s. pic.twitter.com/8wJZp4bJvi
— Varada Marathe (@Varada_M) September 13, 2017
Not only was his name similar sounding to ABVP’s candidate, his pamphlet said he represented Akhil Bharatiya Vidya Parishad, which abbreviates to ABVP. Raja got over 3,000 votes whereas Rajat, ABVP candidate lost by 2,000 votes.
Speculations are rife that dummy candidate was fielded by NSUI to cut into the votes of ABVP candidate Rajat.
Congress used Dummy confidante to trick ABVP voters, but real concern should be NOTA, check their numbers. #DUSUelection2017 pic.twitter.com/daIGpFSCpw
— Vikrant (@vikrantkumar) September 13, 2017
Well played NSUI!Fielded dummy candidate& printed fake pamphlets & candidate having same name as #AVBP guy got 3500 votes! #DUSUelection2017 pic.twitter.com/FiwRGGpxfW
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) September 13, 2017
However, the actual reason to worry for all political parties is the fact that NOTA (none of the above) came third in all the posts.
Narrowing margins should worry #ABVP.High NOTA, which came third on all posts, should worry all political parties in DU. #DUSUElections2017
— Abhinav Prakash (@Abhina_Prakash) September 13, 2017
This is not the first time similar sounding candidates were fielded against someone. In 2014 General Elections too, the BJP candidate from Mahasamund, Chattisgarh, Chandulal Sahu was in a fix when 10 independent candidates with same name had filed nominations from the same constituency. That time too, it was alleged Congress leader Ajit Jogi’s hand in it.
Meanwhile, Congress has credited the DUSU election win of NSUI to Rahul Gandhi’s speech in University of California, Berkeley.
