The DUSU election scoreboard reads ABVP 3, NSUI 0. But the number North Campus keeps repeating is 30,615, the votes independent Deepanshu Shokeen polled for vice-president. That is more than any ABVP winner got on the same day. It is a result both winners and losers will struggle to explain with their usual lines.
The Final Results
ABVP’s Yash Dabas won the presidency with 24,576 votes, beating NSUI’s Vijay Shankar Meena by 2,053. It was not a cruise. At the 12th round of counting, Meena was actually ahead by 424 votes. Riya Chhawdi took Secretary with 21,650 against NSUI’s Namrata Chaudhary on 14,869. Joint Secretary was the tightest race. ABVP’s Lakshya Raj Singh polled 16,615 against 15,778 for the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha candidate, with NSUI’s Gopal Choudhary close behind on 15,206. Turnout was 40.46 per cent, the highest in three years. That also means nearly six in ten eligible students stayed home.
DUSU Election Final Results:
1. President Winner: ABVP
ABVP Yash Dabas : 24,576 NSUI Meena : 22,523 LEFT : 5,377 ASAP : 1,388 Independent : 837 Independent : 819 Independent : 1,115
2. Vice-President Winner: Independent
Independent Deepanshu Shokeen : 30,615 ABVP : 16,910 NSUI : 4,313 LEFT : 2,383 Independent : 2,274
3. Secretary Winner: ABVP
ABVP Riya Chabbri : 21,650 NSUI :14,869 LEFT : 8,734 ASAP : 7,639
4. Joint-Secretary Winner: ABVP
ABVP Lakshay Raj Singh: 16,615 SCS : 15,778 NSUI : 15,206 LEFT : 5,837
The seat nobody planned for
Dipanshu Shokeen won by more than 13,000 votes and became the first independent in the union’s history to hold the vice-president’s post. ABVP’s Ishu Maurya finished second, and NSUI’s Vir Chatrath was a distant third.
Shokeen comes from Peeragarhi. His father is a bus conductor and his mother works as an Anganwadi worker. He first sought an NSUI ticket and filed his nomination, was asked to withdraw, and refused. His real campaign began earlier. After the Satya Niketan PG collapse he vowed not to wear slippers until justice was delivered. A candidate who is standing with students when a building falls doesn’t need a national launch.
Rahul’s day, NSUI’s night
The timing is almost cruel. Rahul Gandhi took “Chhatron Ki Goonj” to Indore, its fifth edition after Kota, Dehradun, Prayagraj and Pune, on the very day NSUI was shut out of the DUSU central panel. It came less than three weeks after NSUI failed to win a post at Panjab University. This morning, Ragini Nayak’s “Aayi Aayi NSUI” cry echoed through the campus. By evening, the echo had nowhere to land.
NSUI’s leadership admitted organisational problems and complained that the Prime Minister acted as a star campaigner for a college election. BJP leaders answered by calling the programme “Jhooth Ki Goonj”. Both lines were predictable. Neither explains Shokeen.
The problem is closer to home
NSUI keeps manufacturing its own rivals. At Panjab University last year, Anurag Dalal was denied a ticket, won as an independent, and the official NSUI candidate finished seventh. At DU, Umanshi Lamba was denied a ticket and also ran as an independent. Insiders blamed factional camps. This year the pattern repeated. A party worker admitted during polling that Shokeen could take votes away from NSUI. Kanhaiya Kumar, NSUI’s in-charge, was visible in the run-up this time, unlike at Panjab University. The result was still zero.
A national campaign can raise the temperature. Ticket distribution decides who benefits from it.
ABVP’s asterisk
ABVP’s machine worked, but it also lost a central post by 13,000 votes. The party name did not carry every seat. And Dabas named safety audits of every PG, hostel and college, prompted by the Satya Niketan accident, as his first priority. That is the same issue that powered Shokeen. Even the winners are running on the independent’s agenda.
What Gen Z actually said
The lazy readings are “Gen Z is saffron” or “Gen Z has rejected Congress.” The ballot says something more awkward. Shokeen out-polled every ABVP winner, so many students must have backed an ABVP president and an independent vice-president on the same machine. That is not party-line voting. One Aryabhatta College student said she weighed who raised student demands and who showed up during the Satya Niketan collapse.
The mood is about proximity. Students voted for whoever stood in the rubble, not whoever stood on a stage. A caution applies too. Only 52 of DU’s 91 colleges take part in central polls, and a 40% turnout is not the whole of Gen Z.
A 2003 footnote
In 2003 NSUI swept all four posts. The Tribune credited a shift from glamour to issues like academic reform and student welfare, with Ragini Nayak winning Secretary that year. The lesson is old: campus voters follow issues, not celebrity.
What to watch next
The Delhi High Court has barred victory processions, so there is no roadshow to read. Watch the office instead. An ABVP president and an outsider vice-president will share it, and Satya Niketan is the one issue both have promised to act on. If they deliver together, that is the real story of this term.