NSUI Rout Puts Kanhaiya Kumar Under Scrutiny
NSUI wins no central DUSU post as Congress reviews its student outreach
New Delhi: Following the NSUI’s rout in the recently concluded Delhi University Students’ Union (DUSU) elections, questions are being raised within the Congress over the leadership of Kanhaiya Kumar, the AICC in-charge of its student wing.
Party insiders alleged that despite several experiments under Kumar’s leadership, the NSUI had failed to achieve electoral success. The latest defeat came as a setback to the Congress, particularly as it coincided with Rahul Gandhi’s participation in the “Chhatron Ki Goonj” programme in Indore, aimed at amplifying student voices and strengthening the party’s engagement with the youth.
The NSUI also failed to capitalise on the student mobilisation witnessed in July and drew a blank in the DUSU polls for the first time since 2015.
Kumar, who has been the AICC in-charge of the NSUI since July 2023, is also facing criticism over the organisation’s candidate-selection process.
Party insiders cited the 2025 Panjab University elections, alleging that Kumar had overruled the local unit and the then NSUI national president, Varun Choudhary, to field a candidate who had joined the organisation only days before the election. The candidate secured 1,359 votes, while the local unit’s preferred contender, who contested as an Independent after being denied the NSUI ticket, polled 2,660 votes. The ABVP eventually won the election.
In the 2025 DUSU elections, the ABVP won three of the four posts. The NSUI’s sole victory was attributed by insiders largely to Rahul Jhansla’s personal popularity rather than the organisation’s electoral machinery. Kumar was also reportedly absent from much of the campaign.
This year, the ABVP won the posts of president, secretary and joint secretary, while NSUI rebel Deepanshu Shokeen captured the vice-president’s post.
Insiders alleged that Shokeen was denied the ticket to accommodate Veer Chatrath, son of AICC secretary Manish Chatrath. Shokeen polled 30,615 votes, defeating the ABVP’s Ishu Maurya, who secured 16,910 votes. The NSUI’s official candidate finished a distant third with 4,313 votes.
In the joint secretary contest, another NSUI rebel, Vishesh Yadav, contested with the backing of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha after being denied a ticket. He secured 15,778 votes, finishing only 837 votes behind the ABVP’s Lakshya Raj Singh. The NSUI’s Gopal Choudhary polled 15,206 votes.
“Three years and three election cycles have shown a consistent pattern. Kanhaiya Kumar centralises ticket distribution, ignores the local leadership and produces rebels who outperform the official candidates,” an NSUI insider told this newspaper.
The insider alleged that after every defeat, Kumar blamed the university administration, the government, the police and the ABVP’s resources instead of accepting responsibility for candidate selection.
Some Congress leaders have also noted the limited presence of Kumar and the organisations under him at Gandhi’s “Chhatron Ki Goonj” programmes. Insiders claimed that he attended the Pune edition only once to address a press conference after considerable persuasion and that he spent much of his time in Mumbai.
Kumar, a former president of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union, had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections as a Congress candidate in 2019 and 2024.
