Only one of them, Amrita Bahri, has not gone on to make a career in politics. But none of the others have made it big.
New Delhi: Student politics has been the stepping stone to bigger things for many political leaders of today — Arun Jaitley (Delhi University), Sitaram Yechury (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and Mamata Banerjee (Jogamaya Devi College, Kolkata) being prime examples.
Of all the student body polls in the country, the two that gain most nationwide attention are those in Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). DU, with its 1.5 lakh students, hosts the biggest democratic election at an academic campus every year. This year the election is set for 12 September.
But what happens after someone has become DUSU president? Not everyone can be Jaitley, after all. ThePrint takes a look back at the 11 most recent DUSU chiefs, and finds out what they’re up to now.
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2006: Amrita Dhawan (NSUI)
Dhawan won the elections during a golden five-year run for the NSUI, the Congress’ student wing. By 2007, she was already a party candidate for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls, where she lost the Vikaspuri East seat to BJP’s Sarita Jindal. The tables were turned in 2012 when she beat Jindal from the same seat. Then, in the 2013 assembly polls, she fought and lost from Tilak Nagar West.
A lawyer by training, she has served as national president of the NSUI, and is currently a member of the All India Congress Committee and a party spokesperson.
2007: Amrita Bahri (NSUI)
Bahri is unique among the DUSU presidents of the last dozen years, in that she didn’t take up a career in politics. Her father Gurdip Singh claims she was offered a Congress ticket for the 2008 assembly polls, but she didn’t take it because she was underage at the time.
Bahri went on to pursue a master’s degree in law at the London School of Economics, and completed her Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham.
She currently serves as the co-chairholder of the WTO Chair Programme for Mexico, and is the deputy director for the Centre of International Economic Law at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, one of the country’s premier educational institutions, in addition to being an assistant professor of law at the university.
However, she still hasn’t closed the door on her dream to be involved in Indian politics.
“Although I am a happy academic in international trade law today, I remain available to my political party and my country as and when they need my services in the future”, Bahri told ThePrint.
“I never left politics. I have gone away to establish myself and be worthy for my country.”
2008: Nupur Sharma (ABVP)
Nupur Sharma’s victory was the first for RSS-affiliated ABVP in six attempts. Sharma’s own political career got a boost as a result, as she became a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s national executive.
In 2015, she fought on a BJP ticket against Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal, and lost by over 30,000 votes.
2009: Manoj Choudhary (Independent)
This was a very different election to its predecessors as the J.M. Lyngdoh committee recommendations on student polls came into effect, curtailing expenditure and banning printed posters.
On top of this, the candidates of the two leading parties, NSUI and ABVP, were rejected for spending too much money, clearing Manoj Choudhary’s path to becoming DUSU’s first Independent president since Rajiv Goswami in 1991 (Goswami had shot into the limelight by self-immolating while protesting the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s recommendations on reservation the previous year).
Choudhary claims he was initially offered the ABVP ticket, but was denied at the last moment. Once its own candidate was rejected, the ABVP implicitly supported him to victory.
However, Choudhary claims he was double-crossed again in 2012, this time by the BJP. He told ThePrint he was promised an MCD election ticket from Janakpuri North, but was denied it, “forcing” him to contest independently. This time, he lost.
In August 2016, he became the national president, youth executive, of the Akhil Bharatiya Gurjar Mahasabha.
2010: Jitender Choudhary (ABVP)
Another Choudhary, another claim of betrayal.
In 2013, just over two years after his tenure as DUSU chief ended, Jitender Choudhary claims he was appointed district president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, while a year later, he became a member of the Morcha’s national executive.
However, he says he was betrayed by a BJYM colleague that year, after which he joined the Aam Aadmi Party (News reports in 2015 claimed he had joined AAP’s student wing CYSS, but Choudhary denied it).
In 2017, he quit the AAP after the party denied him a MCD poll ticket, after which, he says he immediately went back to the BJP fold. Currently, he doesn’t hold a post in the BJP, and is a practicing advocate at Delhi’s Tis Hazari court.
2011: Ajay Chhikara (NSUI)
In December 2012, three months after completing his tenure as DUSU president, Chhikara was appointed national secretary of the NSUI, and was promoted to national general secretary in 2015.
In 2013, when Chhikara was given charge of Chandigarh, the NSUI contested the Panjab University student polls for the first time, and won the posts of president and joint secretary.
Between 2013 and 2015, he also claims to have served as the assistant advocate general for the government of Haryana in the Supreme Court.
Also read: Panjab University gets its first woman students’ body president
Chhikara today is the general secretary of the Haryana Pradesh Youth Congress. Asked if he will contest the 2019 Haryana assembly elections, Chhikara said “if my party gives me the responsibility, I will definitely work hard on it”.
2012: Arun Hooda (NSUI)
Arun Hooda’s Facebook page says he was a pilot in the Indian Air Force before he quit to join politics.
Currently, he serves as media coordinator for the Haryana Pradesh Youth Congress, as well as in-charge of the Okhla region under the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee.
Recent history
ABVP candidates became DUSU presidents from 2013-16. Of these, only 2014 president Mohit Nagar has gone on to become organising secretary (south zone) of the ABVP. The other three — Aman Awana (2013), Satender Awana (2015) and Amit Tanwar (2016) — are all national executive members of the ABVP.