Delhi polls: Former DUSU chief Congress' Rocky Tuseed files nomination from Rajendra Nagar seat

Congress' Rocky Tuseed on Tuesday joined the list of former DUSU presidents such as Arun Jaitley, Ajay Maken and Alka Lamba who graduated from their respective party's student bodies to mainstream politics.

Tuseed, who was the Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) president from Congress-affiliated NSUI in 2017, has been fielded from the Rajendra Nagar assembly seat against the Aam Aadmi Party's Raghav Chadha and BJP's RP Singh.

His tenure as DUSU president was bumpy and rocky to say the least as there was a sword hanging over his continuation as the head of the students' body.

Tuseed was disqualified after he filed his nomination in September 2017 for not disclosing that disciplinary action was taken against him for assaulting a student in his college but his candidature was allowed after the Delhi High Court had put DU's order on hold.

While his plea was pending, he was elected as the president. In 2018, the high court had set aside his election saying he will no longer remain president, but later a stay was put on the decision by the same court.

When he became president, he had ended the five-year-drought for the NSUI.

Tuseed joins the ranks of former DUSU presidents from the National Students' Union of India, like Ajay Maken and Alka Lamba, to make a shift to party politics.

Maken has twice been elected as an MP and has been an MLA in Delhi for three terms.

Lamba, who had unsuccessfully contested from Moti Nagar for the Vidhan Sabha elections on her poll debut from the Congress in 2003, had then joined the AAP and won from the Chandni Chowk constituency in 2015.

However, in September last year, she quit the AAP and announced that she has returned to the Congress, which has fielded her from the Chandni Chowk constituency.

The saffron party has also had many former DUSU presidents from the ABVP as its members, some of whom have held key portfolios.

Jaitley was the president of DUSU in the 1970s and subsequently graduated to the BJP and went on to become a key member of the party.

Vijay Goel, who was the DUSU president in 1977, is a member of the BJP, and has been thrice elected to the Lok Sabha from the saffron party.

In 2015, the saffron party had fielded former DUSU president Nupur Sharma against AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal from the New Delhi constituency, but she lost by over 31,000 votes.

In the lead up to the Delhi Assembly elections, Shakti Singh, another former DUSU president, had joined the BJP, triggering speculations that he might be fielded from Timarpur or Burari, but his name did not figure in the final list of candidates released by the party.