‘Tight slap on his face’: BJP targets Rahul Gandhi after ABVP's big win in DUSU elections

Slamming Rahul Gandhi, BJP's Sidharth Yadav said the ABVP victory reflected students' rejection of “politics of lies, deceit and propaganda,"

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While the ABVP – affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) – marked a big win in Delhi University Students' Union elections on Saturday, the NSUI – student wing of the Congress party – suffered a major setback as it drew blank.

ABVP's Yash Dabas secured the president's post and the RSS affiliate party also clinched two other top posts. Interestingly, Deepanshu Shokeen, who won the vice president post as an Independent candidate, was denied a ticket by the National Students' Union of India (NSUI).

Dabas polled 24,576 votes, defeating NSUI’s Vijai Shankar Meena by a margin of 2,053 votes. Shokeen won the vice-president’s post with 30,615 votes. The NSUI drew a blank, though its candidates lost the posts of president and joint secretary by narrow margins.

ABVP's Riya Chhawdi won the secretary's post, while Lakshya Raj Singh secured the joint secretary's post.

A closely watched contest in student politics, ABVP's big win drew major political reactions as the BJP took potshots at the Congress given LoP Rahul Gandhi's recent youth outreach campaign under ‘Chhatron ki Goonj’.

Last year, the ABVP won the posts of president, secretary, and joint secretary, while the NSUI had secured the vice-president's post.

Union home minister Amit Shah congratulated the ABVP and said the win 'reflects the unwavering trust of the youth in the council's ideology of "Nation First" and its commitment to student welfare.'.

In a dig at the Congress, BJP national media co-convener Sidharth Yadav said the ABVP victory reflected students' rejection of what he described as “politics of lies, deceit and propaganda,"

“For a long time, Rahul Gandhi was working on creating an anti-India agenda. He was creating a narrative that the country's youth are moving away from nationalist ideas and the younger generation is appreciating the politics of lies and conspiracy,” Yadav was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

He added, "Today's result (of the DUSU polls) is a tight slap on his face. DUSU results have completely demolished the narrative that the Congress, Left and their entire ecosystem was trying to build."

Yadav said DU students "downed the shutter" of Gandhi's politics of "falsehood and negative propaganda", adding, "The DUSU results are GEN Z's mandate against Rahul Gandhi. It will give him sleepless nights."

"Rahul Gandhi is sounding 'jhooth ki goonj' at several places. Rahul Ji, are you able to hear this 'sach ki hunkaar' (roar of truth) from students or not?" Yadav added.

Uttarakhand chief minister Pushkar Singh Dhami also took a jibe at Gandhi and said, "Despite all the attempts by Congress and Rahul Gandhi to influence the student elections with the Jhooth ki Goonj (echo of their lies), Gen Z has chosen the ideology of national interest with its wisdom."

The remark referred to Rahul Gandhi's "Chhatron Ki Goonj" campaign, with Dhami using the phrase "Jhooth ki Goonj" as a criticism.

The new DUSU president also took a swipe at Gandhi and said, "We want Rahul Gandhi to become even more involved in student politics, because the more involved he gets, the further NSUI declines."

NSUI's DUSU setback comes at a time when Gandhi is organising youth outreach programme's across the country under the banner of ‘Chhatro ki gunj’ – a caimpaign started following the NEET paper leak row. While the NSUI drew blank in Delhi University polls on Saturday, Gandhi was addressing students at the 'Chhatron Ki Goonj' programme in Indore, where Madhya Pradesh Public Service Commission (MPSC) aspirants raised concerns over delays in recruitment.

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  Sana started her career in 2018 with News18 and later moved to BoomLive. In the meantime, she thought it was a good idea to share what she learnt, hence took up part-time teaching of journalism course at Jamia Millia Islamia, which she says, she thoroughly enjoyed-not sure if the feeling was mutual. For a year, she also tried her hands at communication roles, only to realise she was more comfortable with news. So, joined HT in September 2025. Not much of a talker, always up for chai and sarcasm. And pun always intended. Her tag line is 'I will figure out, but I need to panic first'Read More