Congress-affiliated National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) on Saturday accused the Delhi University Chief Election Officer of being “partisan” and of “selectively going against” non-ABVP candidates.
The NSUI had approached the CEO for the extension of the campaigning period to make up for the time lost owing to the cancellation of its presidential candidate Rocky Tuseed’s nomination — a decision which was subsequently overturned by the High Court on Friday.
However, “he CEO refused to extend campaign time saying that the office was constrained by Lyngdoh Committee guidelines of conducting polls within 56 days”, the student group said in a statement.
The group argued that the election office was bound by a bigger mandate of Lyngdoh Committee, which was to “conduct free and fair elections”.
“It is obvious that our candidate has been highly disadvantaged due to this arbitrary decision of the CEO,” it said.
The CEO was also targeted for being a partisan in favour of RSS-affiliated Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP)– an arch opponent of NSUI.
The student group said that despite there being a written complaint against the ABVP candidates “of assault and criminal intimidation”, the CEO has failed to take any action against them.
“If the CEO is acting in an independent and non-partisan manner, he must immediately take action against the ABVP candidate and extend campaign time,” it added.
NSUI’s presidential candidate for university students union election Rocky Tussed was allowed to contest polls by the Delhi High Court yesterday after his nomination was cancelled by the CEO on Wednesday.
CEO S.B. Babbar had dropped Tuseed’s name from the candidate list on account of his being subject to disciplinary action at Shivaji College where his entry was banned in 2014.
