AAP student wing to make its debut in Delhi University Students Union elections

NEW DELHI: The Delhi University Students Union elections will be an interesting one this year with the Aam Aadmi Party student wing, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, making its debut in the polls.

However, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, which has won two consecutive elections, feels it will again emerge the first choice while the left-wing All India Students' Association, which has grown in strength in the last three years, believes that CYSS will divide the votes of ABVP and National Students' Union of India.

Announcing the decision to contest the DUSU polls, Anmol Panwar, CYSS vice-president, said, "We have been the voice of the student community for the last two years. Politics free of money and muscle power is our goal." CYSS has been there since 2013, but it decided not to contest the last two elections.

Meanwhile, calling both CYSS and AISA fringe players, ABVP's Delhi secretary Saket Bahuguna said, "There is a difference between DU students and Delhi voters — students can't be fooled with false promises. NSUI and CYSS are just like each other in that both are spending lakhs in pasting posters around the city. One is using Rahul Gandhi's photo and the other Arvind Kejriwal's. Welfare of students is not their main concern — they are just agents of political parties. So this year, too, students will vote for ABVP's social and education agenda."

AISA, however, sees the entry of CYSS as an opportunity to make a bigger dent into the ABVP and NSUI vote banks. According to Sunny Kumar, "CYSS contesting the elections is good news. CYSS is entering the field when Kejriwal's graph is sliding. CYSS's politics is the same as ABVP's and NSUI's — based on money and muscle power, social dominance and arrogance. ABVP's stand on the choice-based credit system is wrong. We are surprised that CYSS didn't take up the issue at all. AISA will benefit from this issue as it did from FYUP."