New Delhi: Days after Congress student wing NSUI drew a blank in the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) elections, an NSUI member has approached Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra with complaints against the organisation’s leadership under Kanhaiya Kumar, ThePrint has learnt.
The complaint comes over candidate selection, the handling of aspirants and the lack of involvement of the leadership in campus elections. The member alleged that Kumar—the AICC in-charge of the party’s student wing—was not involved enough on the ground and took decisions without consulting student leaders.
“Kanhaiya wasn’t on campus, how would he know what was happening? He did not take anyone’s advice, just went and made decisions on his own. What he did with Shokeen was just one example. This has happened over the years. He was inactive during elections at all times,” the NSUI member, not wanting to be named, alleged while speaking to ThePrint.
The handling of DUSU vice-president-elect Deepanshu Shokeen—famously known as the ‘barefoot candidate’ who contested independently after being denied an NSUI ticket—is among the issues being raised. Shokeen went on to win the vice-president’s post with 30,615 votes, while NSUI’s official candidate Vir Chatrath finished third with 4,313 votes.
An NSUI functionary familiar with the process said the organisation had already finalised Chatrath’s ticket when Shokeen said he did not want to contest for president.
“When Shokeen said he did not want to fight for president, they told him he had to. Chatrath’s ticket was already fixed and we could not change it because he is the son of a senior party leader,” the functionary told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
The NSUI functionary further said that once Shokeen decided to contest independently, nobody in the organisation tried to stop him or speak to him. “No one tried to retain him despite seeing his potential.”
Another NSUI functionary said the leadership repeatedly questioned Shokeen over the money he was spending on the election. “He doesn’t have money to splurge on an election, he doesn’t have big cars. Is it right to taunt someone over his lack of resources? We supported him from the back, but this was incorrect. Shokeen, he is the son of a DTC bus conductor, he did not have the resources that some other candidates had.”
Shokeen was not the only aspirant to contest outside NSUI after a ticket dispute. Vishesh Yadav, another aspirant, contested the joint-secretary election outside the organisation. He polled 15,778 votes, more than NSUI’s official candidate Gopal Choudhary, who secured 15,206.
NSUI went from winning one post in 2023 to two in 2024, one in 2025 and none in 2026. This year was the first time since 2015 that it failed to win any of the four central-panel posts.
ThePrint has reached out to NSUI president Vinod Jakhar via WhatsApp calls and texts, and Kanhaiya Kumar over WhatsApp texts for comment. This report will be updated if and when their responses are received.
‘More importance to optics than ground-level mgmt’
Other complaints conveyed to Rahul and Priyanka include: leadership “prioritising social media and X optics over ground-level cadre management and mobilisation”.
The members also claimed cadre-wide dissatisfaction with the working style of both the Jakhar and Kumar was evident, “compounded by their visible absence from ground campaigning following ticket distribution”.
Not just DUSU polls
The criticism is not limited to the DUSU elections. Another NSUI member who was closely involved in the elections alleged that Jakhar had not constituted the National Organising Bodies—involved in grassroots outreach—even after eight months in office.
“Regularity and involvement is really less. There is no engagement. They meet no student leaders; the national organising body hasn’t been set up too,” the member told ThePrint.
A former student president of a Delhi University college, who is still associated with NSUI, said Kumar should have been in regular touch with college-level leaders.
“As an in-charge of NSUI, Kumar should have been in touch with his leaders in college. If utilised properly, we could have been his eyes and ears, but he never spoke to us. There is a massive leadership crisis,” the former college president said.
In a now-deleted post on X, another NSUI member wrote: “We need serious reflections over our organisation and its leadership.”
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
Also Read: NSUI rebellion in DUSU polls not the first. It was a test of the Kanhaiya Kumar experiment