Lyngdoh proposes, Rahul imposes poll code

The National Students Union of India (NSUI) is heading for this year’s Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections minus its style quotient.

No more Mercedes cars for campaigning, lavish parties and glamorous photo-shoots for candidates’ posters, as the union gears up for the September 4 polls.

The austerity has nothing to do with the fading economic recession. Instead, the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed JM Lyngdoh Committee on student union elections have forced NSUI to keep its campaign “not about style but substance,” something AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi has emphasised on.

The NSUI declared its candidates for the DUSU polls on Thursday night. The candidates promised an “intense, high-voltage campaign” but promised to keep it “dignified.”

DUSU polls have always made more news for their glamour blitzkrieg than the issues raised by NSUI and the BJP’s Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP).

Rahul, who is in-charge of the Congress’s frontal organisations including the NSUI, has repeatedly spoken against any display of wealth by his partymen, especially office-bearers.

He recently asked the party’s young lawmakers against using beacon lights on their vehicles or even using number plates with their names and designations. In a circular, the AICC general secretary had said, “We are a party of the aam admi. Our conduct and behaviour should manifest the life of an aam admi.”

Though the instructions were essentially for young Congress MPs and Youth Congress members, NSUI members want to extend the same to their campaign. After all, AICC secretary in charge of NSUI affairs, Meenakshi Natrajan, is directly supervising the poll campaign and aspiring politicos wouldn’t want to risk going against Rahul’s whip.

The code of conduct prescribed by the Lyngdoh committee for DUSU polls restricted maximum campaign expenditure by candidates to a measly Rs5000 and banned the use of printed posters.

Further, the report stated that only handmade posters and handbills can be used for campaigning and candidates can paste the same only at designated spots.

The code is certainly difficult to follow. In fact, though NSUI has been claiming that it’s sticking to the code, its candidates Deepak Negi (for DUSU president) and Umesh Tanwar (for vice president) have been issued show-cause notices for code violation. The candidates, as expected, have pleaded innocence.

Interestingly, Lyngdoh, a former chief election commissioner, has been roped in by Rahul to oversee the Youth Congress’ inner-party elections.

“We are concentrating on door-to-door campaigning this time and are exploring the option of campaigning through social networking sites, which are quite popular with the student community. With just seven days for canvassing, the razzle-dazzle is pointless and we are focusing on a dignified campaign as per Rahulji’s advice,” Natrajan said.

Code of conduct
The code of conduct prescribed by the Lyngdoh committee restricts campaign expenditure by candidates to a measly Rs5000

Printed posters are banned, only handmade posters and handbills can be used

Candidates can paste posters only at designated spots

NSUI claims it is sticking to the code, but its candidates for DUSU president and vice-president have been issued show-cause notices for code violation