DU tries to stop poster fights

Walls of Democracy to be shared for DUSUs election campaign

Officials and student leaders are trying to work out a fair way of sharing wall space in Delhi University so that fights don't break out over posters among different parties ahead of the students' union elections.

“The area station house officer (SHO) and senior DU officials wanted to discuss the issue of poster fights which sometimes occur during elections and came out with a democratic solution for it,” said an official.

Last month, few All India Students’ Association (AISA) members had said they were beaten up by Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) while putting up posters for their upcoming event.

According to suggestions, the Walls of Democracy — where posters are allowed in the campus — will be divided into four zones where the poster of each party’s nominated candidate will be put up going by the post.

Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) has four posts — president, vice president, secretary and joint secretary.

“For example, all candidates from various parties standing for the post of president will be given one zone on the wall. Same goes for the remaining three posts,” said the official.

The posters are to be put up between 8 am and 5 pm.

“During night or early morning, if there is a poster tussle, it is difficult to find out about it. Nobody wants any mishap to take place over minor issues. Talks are still going on about it with the area SHO,” the official added.

However, the student body members said minor poster tussles cannot be stopped.

“There are few walls of democracy and every party wants to be more visible. When the election campaigning begins in full swing, nobody will give so much attention as to where to put the posters. I don’t think there will be any concrete decision on this,” said an ABVP member.

DUSU elections are scheduled on September 14. The student body elections usually witnesses a tough contest between ABVP and National Students Union of India (NSUI) members.

Last year, while DUSU president was from NSUI, the other three posts had ABVP members.