New Delhi: When 19-year-old Parvesh first arrived in Delhi last year from Dadri, Haryana, to study B.Sc Electronics at Delhi University’s Rajdhani College, he did not even have a place to stay. The last place he expected help from was the Aam Aadmi Party’s newly launched student wing.
New to Delhi and overwhelmed by college admissions, accommodation, and navigating an unfamiliar campus, Parvesh and his friend Sahil Phogat, a B.Sc Chemistry student from Rewari, were trying to figure the city out on their own.
Then a few senior students stepped in.
Members of ASAP, the Association of Students for Alternative Politics — AAP’s new student outfit — helped them find flats, connected them to brokers, added them to student groups, and explained how college systems work.
“A first-year student doesn’t need much,” Sahil said. “Sometimes they just need one senior who helps them.”
That experience, Parvesh and Sahil said, changed how they looked at student politics, which until then had largely seemed synonymous with expensive SUVs, intense postering, and aggressive campaigning.
Across Delhi, ASAP is trying to position itself as a fresh alternative to the entrenched and often aggressive culture of campus politics long dominated by the ABVP and NSUI. The organisation frames itself around issue-based politics — fee hikes, metro concessions, women’s safety, and administrative problems — rather than spectacle-heavy campaigns associated with DUSU elections.
A lot of Gen Z students call themselves apolitical now. We wanted to create an organisation they could still relate to.
– ASAP leader Ayan Rai
But ASAP is also emerging at a precarious moment for AAP itself. Launched in May 2025, just months after AAP’s defeat in the Delhi Assembly elections, ASAP also represents the party’s attempt to rebuild its youth outreach and campus presence after years of decline. AAP’s earlier student outfit, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), had gradually faded from campuses after repeated electoral failures and long periods of dormancy. By the time Arvind Kejriwal went to prison in the excise policy case and the party began witnessing electoral setbacks and internal exits, AAP’s once barely visible student presence in DU had disappeared completely. Within the organisation, ASAP is often described as both a revival and a reset of AAP’s campus politics strategy.
In April, ASAP entered the spotlight when its members marched to the Lieutenant Governor Secretariat demanding an impartial probe into an incident at Gargi College. Members of ABVP and DUSU President Aryan Mann had forcefully entered the campus, a scene that spread rapidly across social media and reignited concerns around safety in women’s colleges.
For several students, it was the first time they had heard of ASAP. Members stood outside the LG office and colleges with placards condemning campus violence and forced entry, inserting themselves into one of the most discussed DU controversies of the semester.
A year after its launch, the organisation has expanded its ground-level presence, though it is still far from becoming a force in Delhi University politics. Like the CYSS before it, which struggled to build a lasting base, ASAP is still trying to establish visibility in an already crowded student political landscape, dominated by RSS-affiliated ABVP and Congress’ NSUI.
Finding its feet
For Parvesh, DU was the biggest thing that had happened to him. Coming from a small town in Haryana, the city felt overwhelming.
“I was excited but also very lost,” he said.
Commutes stretched for hours and even understanding college procedures felt confusing.
It was during this period that ASAP members helped him and Sahil settle in. Senior students personally guided them through admissions, connected them with other students and helped them find affordable accommodation close to campus. This entry-level help also worked as a shadow recruitment drive.
“That inspired us. We thought if someone helped us when we came here, then we should also do the same for others,” Sahil said.
The two eventually became active in ASAP through Rajdhani College, where both study. But neither sees politics as a long-term career.
“We don’t want to become politicians,” Parvesh said. “We just want to improve the surroundings right now.”
Much of their work now is low profile. It isn’t high on decibel. It is high on building quieter individual connections. It revolves around moving from campus to campus, introducing themselves to students, sitting in canteens, collecting complaints and forwarding them to senior members. On most days, the work is less about speeches and more about visibility — recognising faces, stopping for conversations, and making sure first-year students know whom to call when they run into trouble.
At Rajdhani College, where ABVP has remained dominant in recent years as it expanded its hold across DUSU elections, ASAP, with over a thousand members, still has a relatively small presence and is trying to find its feet, one student at a time.
Campus politics at the college level is also shaped by informal local factions and campaign groups. In Rajdhani College, students describe groups like Team Animal and Team Veer — loosely organised college-level collectives that align themselves with larger student organisations during elections. Team Veer, students say, is associated with ASAP, while Team Animal has at different points interacted with NSUI-aligned students. ABVP has its presence independently.
Both are also critical of what they describe as the growing influence of “money power” and “muscle power” in campus elections that also tends to be episodic.
“A person comes only during elections and suddenly starts offering parties and big campaigns,” Parvesh said. “But after elections, there is no interaction.”
The criticism comes at a time when ABVP has emerged as the dominant force in DUSU politics, repeatedly sweeping student union elections over the last decade and significantly denting what was once NSUI’s stronghold. In the last ten years, the Congress’ student wing has managed to win the DUSU president’s post only twice — in 2017 and 2024.
Instead, they argue, sustained personal engagement matters more.
“If someone talks to students throughout the year and helps them personally, students remember that,” Parvesh said.
For the two freshers, politics became meaningful not because of ideology or elections, but because it offered a way to solve practical problems students face every day.
“When we first came here, we also thought politics was dirty and useless. But then we saw students struggling with fees, flats, travel, and classes. We realised if students themselves don’t speak up, nobody else will,” Parvesh said.
The Gen Z rebrand
For many student leaders within ASAP, the organisation represents both a continuation and a reset. Several members, including student leader Ayan Rai, were previously associated with the CYSS .
Rai said the decision to launch ASAP came after the party realised that student politics and students themselves had changed significantly over the past few years.
“CYSS had an ideology centred around Bhagat Singh and Ambedkar, and we were trying to help students through that framework,” he said. “But we were not able to connect at that level anymore.”
CYSS had contested DUSU elections in 2015 and again in 2018, the second time in alliance with the Left-backed AISA, but failed to win any major post, gradually losing visibility on campuses afterward.
According to Rai, the introduction of CUET and changing campus demographics meant that a new kind of student politics was needed, one that could resonate with Gen Z students entering Delhi University today. The India Against Corruption movement around 15 years ago that attracted the youth is now dated. The party needed a new vocabulary to draw in Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
“Kejriwal’s idea was that we should create an organisation through which Gen Z students can relate,” Rai said. “The kind of crowd coming into colleges now, the kind of politics happening election by election, a lot has changed.”
Many students entering DU today, he said, are also increasingly sceptical of traditional campus politics altogether, put off by the violence, theatrics, and hyper-partisan culture associated with DUSU elections.
“A lot of Gen Z students call themselves apolitical now,” Rai said. “We wanted to create an organisation they could still relate to.”
Over the past year, ASAP has attempted to build connections through issue-based campaigns rather than election-focused mobilisations. One of its biggest campaigns so far has been the demand for 50 per cent metro fare concessions for students.
The organisation has also focused heavily on the rising university fees. Rai said ASAP members conducted surveys across colleges to understand student opinion around what they claim has been a nearly 91 per cent increase in certain DU fees over the past three years.
“We went to 10-20 colleges asking students whether this fee hike was justified,” he said. “Inflation has not increased that much and we are not seeing development at that level either. Infrastructure is poor, administrative problems are everywhere, papers get delayed, wrong results come out. So students are asking what exactly they are paying for.”
Eeshna Gupta, a core member of ASAP, argues that many younger students are increasingly disillusioned with the aggressive and spectacle-driven culture traditionally associated with DUSU politics. “Gen Z is very smart. They are rejecting this kind of politics.”
At the same time, she argues that political participation cannot remain limited to elections and speeches. “If you are good at making spreadsheets, come with that. If you are good at making memes, come with that,” she said. “ASAP is exactly that kind of platform.”
AAP’s backing
When Arvind Kejriwal launched ASAP on 20 May 2025, he framed it as an attempt to build an “alternative” political culture on campuses, one that could move away from money-heavy and personality-driven politics often associated with student politics in Delhi.
“Through ASAP, we will create an atmosphere across colleges in India that will compel people to reflect on the difference between alternative and mainstream politics… A new generation will rise, one that works for the nation and changes the definition of politics. Today, politics is seen as a dirty word–we will change that,” Kejriwal had said at the launch.
The organisation appears to enjoy strong backing from senior AAP leaders, many of whom see the organisation as central to rebuilding the party’s youth outreach after its electoral setback in Delhi last year. Student leaders within ASAP describe senior AAP figures as not just supporters, but direct mentors to the organisation’s core sangathan.
According to members, ASAP was conceptualised with active involvement from senior party leaders, including former Delhi minister and president of AAP’s Delhi unit Saurabh Bharadwaj and AAP MLA Sanjeev Jha, the latter also having played a key role in building AAP’s earlier student outfit.
According to former AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, the relaunch of a student outfit had become necessary not just for the party, but also because broader political culture around campuses was changing.
“AAP has prioritised education in Delhi schools and colleges because unless education is targeted, things will not change politically or socially. That is why ASAP is very important,” he said.
Bharti argues that education remains central to any meaningful political transformation. That, he said, is also the larger purpose behind ASAP.
AAP leaders repeatedly frame the student organisation less as a conventional electoral outfit and more as an extension of the party’s governance-focused politics, particularly around education and public services. According to him, ASAP is expected to carry forward that same politics within campuses — focusing on educational issues, student welfare, and administrative concerns rather than ideological positioning alone.
“AAP’s ideology has always been to do politics of issues,” Bharti said. “ASAP will follow the same path.”
Beyond campus
While student issues dominate ASAP’S discourse, the organisation is also trying to reach a wider audience through social media. With the bio “If not you, then who? if not now, then when?”, ASAP’s Instagram account, with over 3,000 followers, regularly posts about campus issues, protests, and current political developments in an attempt to engage students beyond election cycles.
The content ranges from protest videos and coverage of ASAP events to short explainers breaking down controversies and administrative issues affecting students. Several of the organisation’s reels — particularly videos featuring members directly explaining issues on camera — have crossed hundreds of thousands of views, with some touching over half a million.
In one reel that garnered more than 55,000 views, ASAP leader Ayan Rai narrates the Gargi College incident while clips from the confrontation play on screen alongside AI-generated visuals and text overlays criticising ABVP’s claims around women’s empowerment. The reel framed the incident as part of a larger conversation around safety and intimidation in women’s colleges, drawing supportive comments urging students to become more politically active.
Another reel attempts to romanticise student activism itself. Set to the popular Fleetwood Mac song Silver Springs and stitched together with protest footage, slogan shouting and campus visuals, the video reads: “In your 20s they’ll tell you protests don’t matter and to stay away from politics. Don’t listen. Show up. Choose your politics.”
Other videos focus on everyday student frustrations — transport costs, fee hikes, poor infrastructure and administrative delays. Many are shot outside college gates, with ASAP members and students directly addressing the camera in short, fast-paced “issue explainer” formats. Others document the organisation’s day-to-day activities — protest marches, classroom campaigns, and student meetings.
For Rai, student politics cannot remain confined to classrooms and campuses alone. Over the past year, ASAP members have participated in protests around pollution, the NEP, examination irregularities, and incidents of campus violence across universities.
“Campus politics and mainstream politics are different, but students also need to know what is happening around them,” he said. “We want students to be politically aware, not disconnected from politics.”
Rai said one of ASAP’s biggest challenges is engaging students who increasingly see politics as irrelevant, cynical or something best avoided altogether. Many young people identify themselves as “apolitical” — something ASAP leaders see both as a symptom of disillusionment with mainstream politics and a vacuum they are trying to address.
“If people say they are apolitical and don’t care what the government is doing, then corruption can never be stopped,” he said. “Political awareness decides your future.”
Crowded student politics
While ASAP members insist that their focus on everyday student issues set them apart from other student bodies, this distinction is taking time to register on campuses where student politics has for long been synonymous with ABVP, NSUI, and Left-affiliated groups like SFI and AISA.
ASAP did not contest DUSU elections last year, something Rai admits slowed down the organisation’s visibility.
“People have started recognising the name, but it takes time. ABVP and NSUI have been around for decades. ASAP is a new outfit. To make students understand what we stand for will take at least two to three years,” Rai said.
Even so, Rai claims ASAP’s membership count has crossed the thousand mark in its first year, which includes students who were previously associated with rival student groups.
Members of other student organisations, however, argue that ASAP’s actual presence on campuses remains limited. According to them, ABVP, NSUI, and Left outfits like SFI and AISA continue to shape the larger political culture of Delhi University, while ASAP has so far struggled to establish even a visible organisational base.
A member of the Students’ Federation of India (SFI) said the emergence of an outfit that does not clearly position itself ideologically is concerning at a time when Right-wing politics already has a strong foothold on campuses.
“Depoliticisation of campuses through an organisation without a clear political leaning can be misleading for students,” the SFI member said. “Their presence is still very low and they have not really tapped into larger DU politics yet. We will have to see how they function in the upcoming DUSU elections and whether they also eventually rely on money and muscle power.”
Ronak Khatri of NSUI described ASAP as a “non-serious student organisation” that has not made a substantial impact in its first year.
“At a time when the student political space is already crowded and organisations should be united against ABVP, we are all functioning separately,” the former DUSU President said. “If everyone keeps fighting separately against each other, nothing meaningful will happen.”
ASAP had initially indicated interest in contesting last year’s DUSU elections but ultimately chose not to run — a decision several rival groups see as evidence of the organisation’s limited groundwork.
An ABVP member said the launch of ASAP was primarily an attempt by AAP to retain visibility in Delhi after losing the Assembly elections.
“When you enter student politics only around election season, that is not student activism,” she said. “They are essentially the political youth wing of AAP and have little connection to actual student issues on campus.”
Also read: Delhi villages and the rush to document their vanishing stories
Into mainstream politics
For some within ASAP, student organising has started becoming a pathway into mainstream politics — and it’s not restricted to just campus issues. In the crowded bustling lanes of Zamrudpur village, an elderly man pokes his head into a small square office with a request. His grandson’s school admission has stalled because the child does not yet have an Aadhaar card. Two young volunteers sitting inside carefully note down his phone number and tell him about an Aadhaar camp they plan to organise the following week, promising to call him once the details are finalised.
For 25-year-old ASAP member Eeshna Gupta, this is what good political work looks like on the ground. Gupta, who contested the MCD by-elections from Greater Kailash last year, operates out of an office that also doubles up as an Aam Aadmi Party Seva Kendra, a space where residents routinely walk in seeking help with documentation, admissions, applications, and government services.
Gupta said around 10 to 15 people visit each day with different kinds of problems, many of them unable to afford the high charges demanded at private cyber cafes for basic paperwork. Sitting in the office five days a week, she said, allows people to directly see the work being done.
The MCD councillor elections last year was Gupta’s first foray into mainstream electoral politics and a significant transition from student activism to party politics. In Delhi, student politics has long served as a training ground for future political leaders. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta herself rose through the ranks of ABVP and DUSU before moving to municipal and then state politics.
But for Eeshna Gupta, the core of politics still lies in social work. Before joining active politics, she worked with marginalised communities across Delhi on issues of gender, education, and social justice. She said it was through that work that she began to see how deeply everyday life is shaped by government systems and political decisions, an experience that eventually pushed her toward politics.
“Politics was never the plan for me,” she said. “But the more I worked with people, especially in slum communities, the more I realised that for at least 90 per cent of the population, they are directly dependent on the government. More than wanting to do politics, an urgency to do politics came in front of me.”
ASAP has also attempted to broaden what student politics looks like on campus. Gupta pointed to initiatives around internship support, self-defence workshops for women, disability access, and social work drives in slums and urban villages.
“Contesting elections is one part of student politics,” she said. “But it is not entirely student politics.”
For now, ASAP remains a relatively new entrant in Delhi’s deeply entrenched campus political ecosystem, where organisations like ABVP and NSUI continue to dominate visibility and electoral machinery. But for Gupta and the young volunteers working out of the cramped Zamrudpur office, politics begins with smaller interactions: helping someone fill a form, secure an admission, or access a government service.
“I feel like irrespective of victory or loss, this is what real politics is, ” Gupta said.
(Edited by Aamaan Alam Khan)