DU election 2016 results: ABVP may be celebrating, but 40% students voted NOTA

Almost 40% of the total votes cast in the DUSU (Delhi University Students Union) election on 9 September, were NOTA (None of the above).

Interestingly, this is the first time that student voters across all institutes have been allowed to use the NOTA option.

Of the 1,23,246 total voters, only around 44,370 students polled - voter turnout at the 117 booths in 51 colleges of Delhi University was around 36%.

The RSS' student outfit ABVP maintained its dominance in the DUSU polls - bagging three seats including that of President, while the Congress' NSUI made a comeback by winning the Joint Secretary's post in the results announced on 10 September.

ABVP's Amit Tanwar is the new President of Delhi University Students Union (DUSU) while ABVP's Priyanka Chabri and Ankit Singh have been elected as Vice President and Secretary respectively, according to the Chief Election Officer for DUSU elections, DS Rawat.

NSUI candidate Mohit Garid won the Joint Secretary's seat, preventing a hat-trick by ABVP which had bagged all the four seats in the DUSU polls last year as well as in 2014.

AAP's Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti, which was defeated last year in its debut, did not contest the polls this year.

In the keenly contested President's post, Amit Tanwar got 16,357 votes defeating NSUI candidate Nikhil Yadav by a margin of 4,680 votes, Rawat said.

Priyanka obtained 15,592 votes by defeating her closest rival by a margin of 2,455 votes votes. Ankit Singh Sangwan, who won the Secretary's post, won 15,518 votes by a margin of 1,383 votes.

NSUI's winning candidate Mohit Garid garnered the maximum votes in the elected panel at 16,526 votes, winning the seat by a margin of 2466 votes.

The DUSU polls were held in two phases for electing representatives from 17 candidates of ABVP, AISA and NSUI.

Celebrations broke out with supporters of the winning candidates dancing to the drumbeats and distributing sweets outside the counting centre. The winners were garlanded and ABVP supporters took out a procession. They also paid tributes at Swami Vivekanand's statue in the Arts Faculty of the university.

--With inputs from PTI