Only one of them, Amrita Bahri, has not gone on to make a career in politics. But none of the others have made it big.
Aspirants politics has been the stepping stone to bigger things for many political leaders of today, examples, Arun Jaitley (Delhi University), Sitaram Yechury (Jawaharlal Nehru University) and Mamata Banerjee (Jogamaya Devi College, Kolkata).
Of all the aspirant’s polls in the country, the 2 that gain most national attention are those in Delhi University (DU) and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Every year, DU, with its 1.5 lakh aspirants, hosts the large democratic election at an academic campus. This year the election is set for 12 September.
But what happens after someone has become DUSU president? Not everyone can be Jaitley, after all. So below mentioned are the 11 most recent DUSU chiefs, and finds out what they’re up to now.
2006: Amrita Dhawan (NSUI)
Dhawan won the elections during a golden 5-year run for the NSUI, the Congress’ aspirant wing. By 2007, she was already a party applicant for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi votings, where she lost the Vikaspuri East seat to BJP’s Sarita Jindal. The board was turned in 2012 when she beat Jindal from the same seat. Then, in the 2013 assembly votings, she battles and lost from Tilak Nagar West.
A lawyer by training, she has dressed as national president of the NSUI and is presently a member of the All India Congress Committee and a party spokesperson.
2007: Amrita Bahri (NSUI)
Bahri is exclusive among the DUSU presidents of the last dozen years, in that she didn’t take up a career in politics. Her father Gurdip Singh allegate she was offered a Congress ticket for the 2008 assembly polls, but she didn’t take it because she was underage at the time.
Bahri went on to pursue a master’s degree in law at the London School of Economics and completed her Ph.D. from the University of Birmingham.
She presently serves as the co-chairholder of the WTO Chair Programme for Mexico and is the deputy director for the Centre of International Economic Law at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, one of the country’s leading educational institutions, in addition to being an assistant professor of law at the university.
However, she still hasn’t closed the door on her dream to be involved in Indian politics.
2008: Nupur Sharma (ABVP)
Nupur Sharma’s success was the first for RSS-affiliated ABVP in 6 attempts. As a result, Sharma’s own political career got a breakthrough, as she became a member of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha’s national executive.
In 2015, she battles on a BJP ticket against Aam Aadmi Party supremo Arvind Kejriwal and lost by over 30,000 votes.
2009: Manoj Choudhary (Independent)
This was a very different election to its forebears as the J.M. Lyngdoh bureau approval on aspirant votes came into effect, abridge expenditure and banning printed posters.
On top of this, the applicants of the 2 dominant parties, NSUI and ABVP, were rejected for spending too much money, clearing Manoj Choudhary’s path to becoming DUSU’s first Independent president since Rajiv Goswami in 1991 (Goswami had shot into the limelight by self-sacrificing while affirming the implementation of the Mandal Commission’s approval on reservation the previous year).
Choudhary alleges he was initially offered the ABVP ticket but was declined at the last moment. Once its own applicate was rejected, the ABVP implicitly supported him to success.
However, Choudhary claims he was double-crossed again in 2012, this time by the BJP. He told ThePrint he was pledged an MCD election ticket from Janakpuri North but was declined it, “forcing” him to contest freely. This time, he lost.
In August 2016, he became the national president, youth executive, of the Akhil Bharatiya Gurjar Mahasabha.
2010: Jitender Choudhary (ABVP)
Another Choudhary, another allegate of betrayal.
In 2013, just over 2 years after his tenure as DUSU chief ended, Jitender Choudhary alleges he was appointed district president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, while a year later, he became a member of the Morcha’s national executive.
However, he says he was abandoned by a BJYM colleague that year, after which he joined the Aam Aadmi Party.
In 2017, he quit the AAP after the party abandoned him an MCD vote ticket, after which, he says he immediately went back to the BJP fold. Presently, he doesn’t hold a post in the BJP and is an exercising advocate at Delhi’s Tis Hazari court.
2011: Ajay Chhikara (NSUI)
In December 2012, 3 months after completing his tenure as DUSU president, Chhikara was appointed a national secretary of the NSUI and was advertised to the national general secretary in 2015.
In 2013, when Chhikara was given charge of Chandigarh, the NSUI disputed the Panjab University aspirant votes for the first time and won the posts of president and joint secretary.
Between 2013 and 2015, he also claims to have dressed as the assistant advocate general for the government of Haryana in the Supreme Court.
Presently, he is the general secretary of the Haryana Pradesh Youth Congress. Asked if he will contest the 2019 Haryana assembly votings, Chhikara said if his party gives him the responsibility, he will definitely work hard on it.
2012: Arun Hooda (NSUI)
Arun Hooda’s Facebook page says he was a pilot in the Indian Air Force before he abandons to join politics.
Presently, he serves as media coordinator for the Haryana Pradesh Youth Congress, as well as in-charge of the Okhla region under the Delhi Pradesh Congress Bureau.
Recent history
ABVP applicants became DUSU presidents from 2013-16. Of these, only 2014 president Mohit Nagar has gone on to become arranging secretary (south zone) of the ABVP. The other 3 — Aman Awana (2013), Satender Awana (2015) and Amit Tanwar (2016) — are all national executive members of the ABVP.
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