Click to play videoNew Delhi: As Delhi University goes to polls on Friday, a CNN-IBN Cobrapost special investigation exposes how the
Lyngdoh Committee norms for the elections have been openly flouted.
“Everything has been arranged. Liquor, cars, money, posters, manpower. Everything we need for the election has been arranged. There is no problem at all,” said Devraj Tehlan.
Tehlan is the Congress student wing's candidate for vice-president in the Delhi Union student elections.
The Supreme Court-appointed Lyngdoh Committee recommendations may have been enforced to an extent in other states, but in the capital itself, money and muscle power still hold sway.
Tehlan said he had spent over Rs 16 lakh in his campaign, more than 160 times the maximum limit. That's even more than what some candidates use in Assembly Elections.
“Every expense is important. Forty boys are living in the two flats that I have rented. I have hired a cook for them,” Trehan said.
Reporter: How many cars have you hired?
Devraj: 16-17 cars for the campaign
Reporter: It must be very costly?
Devraj: I am paying Rs 2,500 per day for each car.
But the NSUI candidate isn't the only one flouting the rules. Rishi Raj Meena, who is standing for General Secretary on a ticket from the Samajwadi Party's student wing, told our investigators, who were posing as builders, that he had his own ways of winning votes.
Rishi Raj Meena: I have to distribute liquor in Delhi College of Engineering. There are people of my community there.
Reporter: Money has to be handed out as well?
Rishi Raj Meena: Yes. I will be handing out money in Ramjas College.
When our investigators told Rishiraj they would help finance his campaign, he said what he had to offer.
“You will be getting a mob, a place to hide. If you want we can get a college closed. And I can also arrange for admission into colleges,” Meena said.
For Tehlan and Rishiraj, the decay has set in early. Student elections are often launching pads for politicians, but as these two students show, they are also where the darker side of Indian politics begins to take root.
(With inputs from Rahul Kumar, Harish Sharma, Jamir Ahmed Khan, Asit Dixit)
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