New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Friday struck down a rule requiring candidates of the upcoming elections to the Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) to pay a Rs one lakh bond for any property defacement, in response to a petition filed by students with the All India Students’ Association (AISA), Anjali, and Abhishek.
Earlier this month, Delhi University issued guidelines mandating the payment of bonds and directed college principals to act as “anti-defacement heads” for their respective institutes, ensuring measures against any defacement of property by candidates.
The directive followed a 2018 Delhi High Court order—reinforced in 2024—directing strict action against the damaging of public property.
The Delhi University’s announcement had drawn sharp criticism from all the student groups, including the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), and the Association of Students for Alternative Politics (ASAP).
RSS-affiliated ABVP called the move “undemocratic” and the Congress-backed NSUI a “blatant attempt to crush campus democracy and rig the DUSU elections in favour of ABVP”. ASAP, Aam Aadmi Party’s revamped student body, termed the move “anti-student”.
With the defacement bonds quashed, both NSUI and ABVP have for the first time pledged to mount an eco-friendly campaign.
ABVP Delhi State Secretary Sarthak Sharma told ThePrint that they are using handwritten posters, dried leaves, and social media handles for campaigning. The same is true for NSUI, which is using eco-friendly materials such as cloth and jute posters.
The university polls on 18 September will also see renewed alliances contesting, as Left student groups AISA and SFI have announced their coalition. Their strategy and agenda were outlined in a press conference this week, signalling a coordinated comeback in DU politics.
The AISA-SFI alliance is dividing major posts among themselves: AISA candidates for president and joint secretary, SFI candidates for vice president and secretary. Their campaign will emphasise the Left Front’s manifesto promises such as repealing skill and value-added courses, opposing fee hikes, restoring benefits like concessional metro passes, and advocating for hostel provision for all students.
ABVP has released the list of 11 probable candidates for the upcoming DUSU elections. The list includes Aryan Maan, Bhoomika Chouhan, Deepika Jha, Govind Tanwar, Ishu Maurya, Kunal Chaudhary, Lakshya Raj Singh, Nitin Tanwar, Prabhal Pratap Singh, Rohit Singh, and Yash Dabas.
ABVP’s campaign will revolve around its achievements, such as the centralised hostel allocation system and the rollback of a college fee hike. Sarthak Sharma noted that ABVP will showcase the promises it implemented last year—the one-course-one-fee for postgraduate programmes and the improvements in the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) in colleges will shape the group’s election message.
NSUI will focus on issues rather than campus infrastructure and student facilities, with its concentration on social justice, as well as equal opportunity, gender equality, and women’s safety.
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Last year’s elections
Last year, NSUI made history as its presidential candidate, Ronak Khatri, defeated the candidate from the ABVP, the party that had won the presidential post for seven consecutive years. Khatri defeated ABVP’s Rishab Choudhary by 1,343 votes. NSUI also bagged the post of joint secretary.
ABVP bagged the posts of vice president and joint secretary. It had promised to organise free trips to the Ayodhya Ram Temple to connect students with their culture, implement ‘One Course, One Fee’ for postgraduate students, set up ICCs, organise job fairs, and ensure women’s safety on campus.
On the other hand, the NSUI had adopted a student-first approach in their manifesto, with emphasis on transparency in examination and students’ participation in decision-making, and improvements to the campus infrastructure.
Last year, for the first time in the history of DUSU elections, the Left Front student groups, AISA and SFI, fought the election in an alliance. The alliance, in its manifesto, had highlighted the requirement for gender sensitisation cells and the ICC in all colleges.
Earlier, speaking about their experience of working in an alliance, AISA DU President Saavy Gupta, who was then DUSU president nominee, told ThePrint, “The alliance was a very hopeful alliance for the whole of Delhi University and of course, for the students, and we realised that the response it received among the students was really energetic”. She added that both the left parties had taken the decision, keeping in mind “times like these”.
SFI Delhi state secretary Aishe Ghosh, similarly, said, “Our alliance with AISA was much more effective to tell the DU students that other than money muscle, student politics mean safeguarding democracy, safeguarding the students rights. It means talking about inclusiveness. So, these are issues on which we have always worked together.
“Not only did we see that in spaces like DU, but even though, in many places, we don’t have an electoral alliance, we have together worked in making sure that the campus places are more inclusive.”
Neetu Sharma is an alum of TPSJ currently interning with ThePrint
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)