Even as Congress leader Rahul Gandhi sought to woo Gen Z amid his “vote chori” pitch, the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) election results will hand the BJP the bragging rights of support from that segment of the population. The ABVP, the student wing of the RSS, won three of the four key posts in the DUSU election, while Congress’ NSUI won just one. Earlier this year, the ABVP gained ground at JNU, considered to be a left bastion.
After the victory ABVP took to ‘X’ (formerly twitter) and said “Gen Z chooses their union President with a margin of 16,196 votes, Secretary by 7,662, and Joint Secretary by 4,445. This win is not just a result; it’s the trust of this generation on ABVP. A victory of DU students and a victory of vision”
Amid Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s appeals to Gen Z Indians, the Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) election results will give the BJP the bragging rights of support from the section of the youth born between 1997 and 2012. The students’ wing of the RSS, the BJP’s ideological fountainhead, won three of the top DUSU posts, showing that the Gen Z voters, at least at Delhi University, backed the Sangh Parivar, of which the BJP is the political outfit.
The voting in DUSU took place on Thursday, even as Rahul Gandhi appealed to the Gen Z of the country on the alleged “vote chori” in elections. The BJP, which has a youth outfit, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), doesn’t have a students’ organisation, and leaders from the ABVP have gone on to become prominent faces in the party, like former finance minister Arun Jaitley and Delhi CM Rekha Gupta. The DUSU polls verdict comes months after New Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), where red ran deep, showed a saffron shift. In the hotly contested JNUSU elections in April, the ABVP achieved a massive breakthrough in the traditionally Left-dominated campus. It has also got 23 councillor seats out of 44 in JNUSU.
Kerala BJP chief Rajeev Chandrasekhar, hit out at Rahul Gandhi over his recent Gen Z tweet after DUSU election results were declared. “The country’s youth, the country’s students, the country’s Gen Z will save the Constitution, protect democracy, and stop vote theft. I will always stand with them,” Rahul Gandhi posted on X.
The DUSU election results signal a strong backing for the BJP-aligned Sangh Parivar among Delhi University’s Gen Z voters, which is placed to challenge Rahul Gandhi’s narrative of youth support for Congress. The BJP is likely to leverage this victory to counter Gandhi’s allegations of electoral malpractices and his calls for youth activism, framing them as divisive. The ABVP’s dominance in DUSU and recent JNU polls breakthrough underscores a shifting political tide among young voters.
While the Left alliance secured key central panel posts, the ABVP made unprecedented gains in councillor seats. The ABVP won 23 out of 42 councillor seats across 16 schools and special centres, which was the highest number of seats won by any student body.
Even in the DUSU elections, the Congress‘ students’ organisation, NSUI, alleged EVM-manipulation at Kirorimal College and Hansraj College, according to reports.
The ABVP won three of the four main seats in the DUSU election. ABVP’s Aryan Mann was elected as the president.
The students who voted in the DUSU election are largely Gen Z, who would currently be aged up to 28. However, only a small fraction, mainly from postgraduate or doctoral courses, could belong to the millennial category.
Last year, NSUI’s candidates won the president and the joint secretary’s post. The ABVP won the posts of vice-president and secretary.
This year’s results in favour of the ABVP is going to aid the BJP’s attack on Rahul Gandhi.
Rahul Gandhi alluding to Gen Z Indians have been perceived by the BJP as the Congress leader’s attempt at inciting the youth against the backdrop of the agitation in Nepal that toppled the regime of KP Sharma Oli.
“Rahul Gandhi has always given statements that shame the country… He is calling Gen Z to protest, implying that the Nepal Model should be implemented here, but he should know that in Nepal, Gen Z has toppled a dynastic government,” BJP MP Kangana Ranaut told news agency ANI.
Ronak Khatri became DUSU President last year. All he did was 24*7 ReelBazi, intimidating Pro-Nationalist voices, & caste rhetorics.
Social Media users took a sarcastic jibe at congress on the DUSU election results. A Post from ‘X’ (formerly twitter) read “Joslyn Chaudhary, Cogress’s NSUI candidate for DUSU President. Has 220K followers on Instagram. Like Rahul Gandhi, she thought Insta Views & Reels win elections. Yesterday she lost to ABVP that works on ground by 16196 votes. Got only 12645 vote. This proves that Bharat’s GenZ is smart. A they have a clear vision when it comes to politics.”
