CYSS' loss not a verdict on Delhi government: AAP

NEW DELHI: An aggressive campaign supported by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his MLAs, and a rosy internal survey did not work for Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) in the final reckoning. While Aam Aadmi Party has refused to see the DUSU poll washout as a referendum on its government, its critics say this is the first example of the public rejecting AAP's politics.

Kejriwal's former colleague and lawyer Prashant Bhushan, who was backing CYSS' rival AISA, tweeted: "DUSU lesson for AAP: When people vote for you for alternative politics and you descend to money and muscle power, you fall between two stools and lose."

But AAP members insisted DUSU polls are no test of a government's performance. "Municipal by-elections, if and when they are held, will be the real test," said an AAP source, adding, "even NSUI had a mixed run during Sheila Dikshit's tenure. For that matter, ABVP swept all four seats in last year's DUSU elections but managed only three seats in the assembly polls."

However, AAP would have undoubtedly projected a DUSU win as a referendum on its performance. The government had gone all out to woo students just before the elections, announcing special buses for DU and Wi-Fi and launching its much-publicized loan scheme on the day campaigning ended.

"CYSS is a very new organization and inexperienced in contesting elections, yet it got more votes than AISA and would have done better but for the sympathy NSUI got after its presidential candidate was beaten up," said a senior AAP functionary. "We have performed well and we will do better next year," said Anmol Panwar, vice president of CYSS Delhi.

Poll watchers said while CYSS had failed to dent ABVP's prospects, it had eaten into the vote shares of AISA and NSUI. Aman Nawaz of AISA said CYSS "can't do better than this. They violated codes, spent more money than NSUI and with all those malpractices, have managed only this. They can't do more."

Roji John, national president of NSUI, said, "There is a strong sentiment against BJP in DU but a section of students thought CYSS was the best bet against ABVP and our votes got divided in the process."

Rohit Chahal, national secretary of ABVP, said, "CYSS got in all the AAP ministers, MLAs and MPs into classrooms to campaign, planted bogus survey reports and mimicked Congress' strategies. Students are smart enough to see through all this."