In Delhi University Students Union 2026, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad won three out of four seats of the Central Panel, including that of the President. Yash Dabas won the post of President, Riya Chhawadi won the post of Secretary and Lakshya Raj Singh won the post of Joint Secretary, while independent Dupanshu Shaukeen won the post of Vice President. Congress' student wing NSUI did not get any post.
After these results, the question arose in everyone's mind that how did ABVP maintain its previous performance? What was the strategy of ABVP to win the DUSU elections, due to which it won three out of four seats? When ABVP held a press conference after winning the elections, it told how it had made a place in the hearts of the students of Delhi University.
ABVP campaigned in DUSU elections by carefully distributing tickets and focusing on the basic problems of the students, due to which Gen-Ji students of the university started joining this saffron organization. Even after winning the Delhi University Students Union elections, there are many issues of students and paper leaks on the ground. In such a situation, what is the future plan of ABVP and how will it raise the issues of students further? Also, what is its strategy regarding the upcoming elections in universities across the country?
ABVP National Organization Minister Ashish Chauhan has discussed all these issues in detail with 'Khabargaon'. Excerpts of conversation with Ashish Chauhan..
Question: First of all, congratulations to you on this victory. What do you think were the reasons for this victory and to whom would you give credit for this victory?
Answer: See, in a big university like Delhi University where there are more than 50 colleges and departments. By combining all these, the student union is elected. Students from all over the country come and study in these colleges and departments. So in fact the topics which are discussed in the university during and after the elections are campus topics. For example, this time the question of hostel, PG and infrastructure was on the forefront in DUSU because after the Satya Niketan incident, this question became more discussed among the students.
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After this, the second issue is the connectivity of the students coming to study in the university from Delhi-NCR, because Delhi University is so big, whose colleges are spread all over Delhi. In such a situation, connectivity is always a concern here. Besides, girls' safety is also a matter of concern. Overall, these issues always remain in the university. This time, there was a lot of discussion in the campus about how SEC and VAC subjects should be implemented properly regarding academic subjects.
There was also an issue of future internship and placement opportunities for students at the university. But before us was the matter of voice and representation of the entire country. In such a situation, the eyes of the entire country were fixed on us. What does the whole country want along with the students here… We raised those issues in the campus. We stuck to our issues. Apart from this, we had the extremist left ideology with Naxal ideology, with whom we had a fight. This ideology follows Mao's philosophy as 'barrel of the gun'. This ideology believes that mere thoughts, speeches or public support are not enough for a revolutionary movement. If any organization wants to change the system of power, it must also have organized military power. So we had such ideas before us in the elections.
In such a situation, the question arises, do these forces of the Left follow that ideology? In these elections, we get to see that the students of Delhi University did not believe in these ideas and supported the ideology of nationalism, patriotism, nation first… in the country. The students have stood with ABVP, the organization which supports the ideology of nationalism. The students of the university will never stand with such an ideology which will compromise even a little with the ideology of nationalism and patriotism. What Congress said earlier was that they would not sing the entire six verses of 'Vande Mataram'. So this does not happen in Delhi University.
Because students from all over the country come to study in large numbers in Delhi University. These students have a real idea about Pro-Indian Army, Pro-India symbols, Indian culture, symbols, Indian tricolor, our symbols of honour, natural inclination towards these. This has been seen repeatedly not only in this election but also in the previous elections. This means that this time's results are not new. All the organizations that were contesting elections before us have failed.
Question: Just two months ago such a huge demonstration of Cockroach Janata Party took place at Jantar Mantar. After the protest, it was believed that Gen-Z would vote against ABVP in Delhi University this time. Also, it was expected that NSUI would win the seats this time. Were you guys feeling challenged by this?
Answer: See, their framing itself is wrong that if there is any protest then this party i.e. this student organization will lose. Opponents made this assumption, whoever thought so thought wrong. Rather, they should have thought whether there is resentment among the students due to the leaking of some papers? There was absolutely 100 percent resentment among the students. Many things also came to light in our internal survey. During the survey, we also noticed that yes, students are angry with the incidents of paper leak.
At the same time, if students want a solution to the problem of paper leak, then we always stand with the students struggling for the solution. For example, when we agitated for the NEET paper leak in May, the Vidyarthi Parishad demonstrated outside the NTA office and students from across the country joined it. After this, 23 people were arrested, due to our pressure the NEET exam was conducted again and later a CBI investigation was conducted. In a way, the process was going in one direction for the interests of the students.
The exam of NEET candidates was held again on June 21 and the result was also declared. After our demonstration, CJP protest continued from 28th June… Abhijeet Deepke came on 9th June, he roamed around and came to know that the number of students there was less. Deepke was feeling hot at Jantar Mantar…etc. So overall CJP's performance was veiled as the students' concerns had already been addressed.
Question: What is ABVP doing about the way competitive examination papers have been leaked and incidents of irregularities have come to light in the past and what will it do in the future? Because there is an issue of students on the ground…
Answer: Yes, it is definitely a students issue. I was the one who said in the beginning that this is an issue and students are concerned about it. We have raised this issue with NTA in Delhi. We raised the issue of students in Jharkhand also, there was a student movement in Jharkhand also. We raised the issue of students in Punjab also, we raised the issues of students by protesting in Karnataka also. A similar incident also happened inside Mumbai University, we raised the issue there too and agitated in the interests of students. We have also reflected that by carrying out all these movements, solutions to the problems of the students can be found in a positive manner.
We have put these issues before the students. We have shown how students can raise these important issues together. So will there be a need to raise such issues? I would say yes…it will definitely be there. Will the Student Council raise these issues of the students further? I would say yes… 100 percent will raise these issues. Will issues be resolved through violence? We say absolutely not. Issues can always be resolved in a constructive manner and also peacefully and insistently. The Student Council raises and talks about these issues through demonstrations. We have been doing this continuously.
For example, after the Satya Niketan incident in Delhi, we agitated against the MCD. Raised this issue right then and there. You go and see why the junior engineer of MCD does not want to take transfer from his area? Leave aside transfer, he never wants to take even his promotion… This is because he is not comfortable with the grade pay you will give him after promotion. He is getting more from somewhere else than his grade pay. These are some of the responsibilities which are leading to such incidents. This is very serious.
Question: If there are incidents of road collapse, bridge collapse or building collapse in the officers and government personnel who are directly connected with the needs of the public, should the Vidyarthi Parishad and the students also stand against them?
Answer: After the Satya Niketan incident, the movement of Vidyarthi Parishad was against the MCD Chairman and MCD Commissioner. But the rest of the people demonstrated against the Chief Minister. You tell me that when you look at the seriousness of any issue… a movement against a leader will either ruin the career of that leader or it will take off. But today, when an IAS or a civil servant commits a wrongdoing, there is no situation in front of us to stop them.
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IAS who commit irregularities can be transferred, they can be transferred from one place to another. In the political process, you have 100 percent power to remove someone, but you do not have the power to remove a corrupt IAS. Why doesn't anyone speak about it? Why doesn't the Red Flag movement (Left organization) work here? Why are they not able to protest or raise issues on such issues? Here they slip to pieces.
The activism of these people goes against an elected leader and they like it because he is their opponent. And when Karnataka Minister Priyank Kharge says that the protesters will have to be beaten first, then not even the sound of 'chu' comes out of his mouth. Where in Punjab a minister says, I will not resign, then these people are not ready to say anything. And not only this, CJP also went to some schools of Punjab… where they had already kept the schools shining… the schools there became tourist campaigns for them. CJP's visit seemed to be a promotion of Punjab Tourism, it seemed to be a so-called campaign of CJP.
Question: Elections are to be held in more universities of the country, in such a situation, what will be the future strategy of Vidyarthi Parishad and how will it contest the elections?
Answer: We contest student union elections. Wherever student union elections are held, we contest in every university. We raise students' issues by discussing them locally. Our view regarding some national issues is 'nation first'. In the university campus, work should be done on students' issues rising above party politics. All the student organizations outside consider themselves as student units of a political party, but Vidyarthi Parishad says – We are not a unit of any political party because we were established long ago, we are an independent organization. But other organizations are not independent. All of them are associated with a political party which is registered under the People's Representation Act.
How can the opposing parties deny this truth later? There is a National Secretary of Congress who is in-charge of NSUI (Kanhaiya Kumar), how can people forget him? His decision regarding Delhi University was taken in the shining building of Indira Bhawan, a few meters away from here. So when NSUI candidates were decided by sitting in Indira Bhawan, how can he say that he is not from Congress?
What is the involvement of those people, it is clearly visible. The people of Aam Aadmi Party have written in the placard of their student wing CYSS, 'Student Organization of Aam Aadmi Party', the logo of the party is also there. What I mean to say is that these things make it clear that SFI and AISA are also political party organisations. But, there is no ABVP.