Rahul Gandhi summons Kanhaiya Kumar over NSUI's DUSU election loss

Will Kanhaiya lose control of NSUI?

The Delhi University Students' Union (DUSU) election was an opportunity for the Congress party to test its reach among young voters. However, the party's student wing, NSUI, failed to win a single seat on the four-member central panel. Weeks after the election, Rahul Gandhi has now sought answers from NSUI in-charge Kanhaiya Kumar regarding this defeat.

On Monday, Rahul Gandhi summoned NSUI in-charge Kanhaiya Kumar and national president Vinod Jakhar to review the election results. Congress's organization general secretary K.C. Venugopal was also present at the meeting.

According to sources,

Rahul Gandhi asked both leaders how NSUI performed so poorly despite being so close to winning the president's position. It is reported that he questioned, “We were very close to winning the president's position, then what happened?”

Sources say that Rahul Gandhi expressed dissatisfaction with the election management and sought detailed answers regarding strategy, candidate selection, and the campaign. Venugopal also reportedly questioned Kanhaiya Kumar, stating that since Kumar had taken responsibility for the candidates during ticket distribution, why were the results so different from expectations?

The meeting also raised the case of Deepanshu Shaukeen. Former NSUI member Shaukeen contested the vice-presidential election as an independent candidate and won. He had been active in student politics since 2023 and had campaigned for NSUI in the 2023 and 2024 elections. This time, he had also sought a ticket from the organization but ended up contesting as an independent.

According to sources, Rahul Gandhi asked Kanhaiya Kumar and Vinod Jakhar why Shaukeen was not given a place in the organization. Both leaders replied that Shaukeen had set some conditions that were not feasible to accept. It is reported that Rahul Gandhi was not satisfied with the handling of this matter. After his victory, Shaukeen referred to Rahul Gandhi as his leader while indirectly questioning the election managers.

However, Congress leader Amitabh Dubey questioned the claim of Shaukeen not being given a ticket. He wrote on X that Shaukeen was given a ticket for the president's position but he declined it to contest for the vice-presidency as an independent. The question being raised is what was the difficulty in giving Shaukeen a ticket for the vice-presidency? Was the vice-presidential ticket reserved for Vir Chatarath?

In the DUSU results, the RSS-affiliated student organization ABVP won the president, secretary, and joint secretary positions. Shaukeen was victorious for the vice-presidency, while NSUI did not open its account.

This defeat came at a time when Congress is trying to connect with young voters. Rahul Gandhi's ‘Chhatron Ki Goonj’ campaign has involved dialogues with students in various cities. In this context, the DUSU results have raised questions within the organization about how much the youth outreach campaign is translating into ground-level organizational strength. On the day the results were announced, Rahul Gandhi had a program in Indore as part of the students' outreach.

According to sources, the meeting also discussed the increasing political participation of Gen-Z youth in various national issues and movements. Congress leadership believes that a detailed review of the defeat in a major student election like DUSU is necessary.

Questions about Kanhaiya's leadership have been raised both within and outside Congress. Many have demanded Kanhaiya's removal from the NSUI in-charge position following these results.

It has also been questioned why Kanhaiya remained distant from the entire Gen-Z movement, as he neither went to Jantar Mantar on any day nor participated in this movement in Bihar or any other state.

Additionally, questions have been raised regarding the decision to give the vice-presidential ticket to Congress leader's son Vir Chatarath. Vir Chatarath failed to make any significant impact as the official candidate for the NSUI vice-presidency and finished in third place.

It is believed that Kanhaiya is close to Rahul Gandhi, so the biggest question remains whether Rahul Gandhi will remove him from this position.