New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Congress leaders on Wednesday jumped in to provide the last-minute push to the campaigns of their student wings candidates as canvassing wound up in Delhi University for elections that are considered a prestige issue for the two national parties.
A total of 38 candidates from different political affiliations will test electoral waters in the Delhi University student polls on September 14.
Election candidates of Congress and ABVP got support from their parent party bigwigs, with BJP state president Vijender Gupta and AICC General Secretary Oscar Fernandes exhorting students to vote for their representatives.
Campaigning was at its peak two days before the polls, with candidates criss crossing the massive University campus to reach out to as many students as possible. BJP's student wing ABVP has over the past two years made it a point to target the Congress-led state and central governments over corruption to mobilise support for its candidates, and the strategy has worked for them.
Raising the corrption slogan again this time, ABVP said today that 'NSUI's defeat will be corruption's defeat'.
Congress's student wing NSUI, on the other hand, has sought to raise topical issues like the recent court action against photocopied material, to strike a chord with the students.
"The 2G scam, coalgate scandal are symbols of corruption in which the Congress-led governments are mired," Gupta said attacking Congress at a press conference.
"The DUSU polls is an ideal chance for students to express their angst against the corrupt Congress regime and the anarchic situation they have created," he said.
NSUI, on the other hand, roped in actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar, Congress MPs Deepender Singh Hooda and Mahabal Mishra, and Fernandes who addressed meetings to canvass for their candidates.
The NSUI also raised the issue of the killing of an activist allegedly by ABVP members in Madhya Pradesh, with National President Rohit Choduary, meeting with the Minister of State for Home Affairs Jitendra Singh demanding a CBI inquiry into the incident in the BJP-ruled state.
The post of president is likely to see a direct contest between NSUI's Arun Hooda, a second year student of Buddhist studies, and ABVP's Ankit Dhananjoy Chaudhary of Buddhist Studies.
BJP's student wing ABVP has dominated the last few students' unions, with its members campaigning hard against the Congress-led state and Central governments.
Ajay Chikra, the last president of the union, was affiliated to the Congress's student wing NSUI, while all the other three posts were held by student activists of the ABVP.
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