Tight security for DUSU poll today, 20,000 to cast vote

NEW DELHI: Posters, slogans, rallies and scuffles - the last day of campaigning for DUSU elections, Thursday, saw a final attempt by student parties to woo the voters. Code violation was at its peak and heaps of posters carpeted the roads.

Though campaigning was supposed to stop 24 hours before the elections on Friday morning, candidates kept canvassing till late in the evening on Thursday as the deadline had been extended by DU to make up for the delay caused in completion of pre-election formalities. To clear up the mess, there was also a cleaning up act by outgoing president Amrita Bahari with her supporters. Party workers took the students to resorts and movies.

Earlier in the day, ABVP and NSUI held rallies which was followed by a brawl between the supporters from the two parties at the law faculty in which at least one person was injured. According to eyewitnesses, supporters from the two parties were putting up posters of their respective candidates at the same place which led to an argument that finally turned violent.

However, the scuffle was prevented from going out of control as police arrived in time.

The police will have special security arrangements today across all the 51 colleges affiliated to DUSU. The police have divided the north campus into six sections that will be looked after by six teams each, headed by an inspector with two subordinates. The security in every zone will be taken care of by an ACP. "We will have uniformed personnel but more officials in plain-clothes. There will be special squads to keep a check on eve-teasing. We will assure minimum visibility of police deployment as it is supposed to be a students' election," said DCP (north) Sagar Preet Hooda.

He added that about 20,000 voters are expected to turn up at 36 polling booths in the North Campus alone. For this, 18 liasion officers have been deployed who would be in direct contact with the polling booth in-charge and the patrolling parties. "We will be responsible for the security of EVMs when they are transferred, but colleges will have to make sure outsiders don't enter their premises. We will also have video cameras at strategic locations like the faculty of law, Miranda House, Patel Chowk, among others," Hooda said.