DUSU Election 2026: ABVP, NSUI intensify campaign ahead of September 18 polling

With voting for the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) election scheduled for September 18, campaigning intensified across the campus on Tuesday, with major student organisations stepping up their outreach and pitching their respective agendas to students. The RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the Congress-affiliated National Students' Union of India (NSUI) are the two prominent contenders for the four key posts.

ABVP's panel comprises Yash Dabas for president, Ishu Maurya for vice-president, Riya Chhawdi for secretary and Lakshya Raj Singh for joint secretary. ABVP said its candidates and workers were reaching out to students across colleges and highlighting issues related to accommodation, transport, campus infrastructure and student welfare. The organisation said it has consistently raised student issues and cited initiatives and demands including increased PG accommodation, U-Special bus services, centralised hostel allocation, Pink Booths for women, Vamika patrol vans and infrastructure development. It also highlighted its internship programmes, claiming around 7,000 students had received training through its Great DUSU Internship and around 1,000 through its Law Internship.

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ABVP Delhi State Secretary Sarthak Sharma said the organisation's "year-round" work on campus had made it the first choice of students. The organisation also highlighted its electoral record, saying it began contesting DUSU elections in 1971 and won all four posts in the first direct elections in 1973. It claimed to have won the president's post nine times in the 13 DUSU elections held since 2010. Sharma expressed confidence that the ABVP panel would secure a "decisive 4-0 victory" in this year's elections.

The NSUI, on the other hand, has made social justice, equality and student welfare the central themes of its campaign and said it was seeking to provide an alternative to the existing campus politics. The NSUI panel comprises Vijay Shankar Meena for president, Vir Chatrath for vice-president, Namrata Choudhary for secretary and Gopal Choudhary for joint secretary. NSUI National President Vinod Jakhar said the organisation's campaign represented the aspirations of students seeking "social justice, equality and accountability". The organisation said it would raise issues including affordable and safe hostels, rising rents, transparent administration, greater student representation and academic opportunities.

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Jakhar claimed that students across the university were responding positively to the campaign and expressed confidence that NSUI would win all four posts. To ABVP's charge that NSUI was witnessing dissent among ticket aspirants, leader Samarth Beniwal said he was actively campaigning for all four candidates. "I am fully campaigning for the NSUI candidates and working wholeheartedly for the organisation's victory," Beniwal said, adding that the organisation was united and would respond to what he called ABVP's "false propaganda" through the election. With polling scheduled for September 18, candidates and their supporters are making a final push to reach students across the university's colleges before campaigning ends. The DUSU elections will see voting for the posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary, with counting scheduled for September 19.