'A Refreshing Change': Delhi University Students Welcome Poster-Free, 'Clean & Green' Polls

New Delhi: Voting for the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) elections is underway on Thursday amid tight security, with more than 600 police personnel deployed to ensure smooth polling.

Students are casting their votes in two phases from 8.30 am to 1 pm for day classes and 3 pm to 7.30 pm for evening classes.

Around 2.8 lakh students are eligible to vote in the elections, the results for which will be declared on September 19.

Officials said 160 policemen equipped with body cameras, along with CCTV surveillance and drones, are monitoring the exercise.

About The Polls

At the centre of the contest are three student groups - the RSS-affiliated Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the Congress-backed National Students' Union of India (NSUI) and the Left-supported SFI-AISA alliance. ABVP has fielded Aryan Maan from the Department of Library Science, NSUI has nominated Joslyn Nandita Choudhary, a postgraduate student of Buddhist Studies, while Anjali from Indraprastha College for Women is contesting as the SFI-AISA candidate.

For the first time in years, the election has unfolded on a visibly clean campus. Walls of colleges and hostels, often plastered with posters and graffiti during the polls, have remained untouched, with the university strictly enforcing the Lyngdoh Committee's anti-defacement guidelines.

The shift has been welcomed by many students. "I am voting in DUSU polls for the second time. Last year, the roads were so full of posters and pamphlets that you could barely see them," said Sumit Singh of Hansraj College, adding that this year's "clean and green elections" are a refreshing change.

First-time voter Anjali from Kirori Mal College compared the atmosphere to that of bigger elections. "This is the first time I have voted in any kind of election. There is so much security, almost like state Assembly or Lok Sabha polls. It feels good to be part of a university that gives its students this opportunity," she said, hoping that the winners would raise issues concerning students.

At the Faculty of Law, Kamal, a second-year student, linked the improved conduct to judicial oversight. "The Delhi High Court is continuously giving directions to the DU administration, and the varsity has largely succeeded in curbing defacement and outside interference. Last year, the court even halted the results for more than two months. That intervention has helped improve DU's image this year, when elections were earlier seen as dominated by money and muscle power." As polling continued across colleges, students expressed optimism that the mix of strict enforcement, judicial backing and cleaner campaigns would set a new benchmark for future campus elections.

(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)