Voter turnout in DUSU elections at about 44 pct till 7:30 pm

New Delhi, Sep 12 (PTI) The voter turnout for the Delhi University Students' Union poll on Wednesday was around 43.8 percent till 7.30 pm, an official said.

The results will be announced Thursday. Last year, the election saw a 43 percent voter turnout.

Polling took place at 52 centers in the colleges here. As many as 1.35 lakh voters have been involved in deciding the fate of 23 candidates in the DUSU polls.

Heavy police deployment was observed in the area, with around 700 personnel of the force stationed in the north campus. A person wearing a question mark sign was detained by police outside Ramjas College.

Senior faculty members were posted as observers at the centers and around 700 electronic voting machines (EVMs) had been installed, the official said.

In the morning colleges, polling began at 8.30 am and ended at 1 pm. In the evening colleges, polling was held between 3.00 pm and 7.30 pm.

In the fray are the candidates of National Students' Union of India (NSUI), the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and the AAP's student wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) which is contesting the polls in alliance with left-wing students' outfit All India Students Association (AISA).

While the NSUI has promised the 'Institute of Eminence' tag for Delhi University and thalis at Rs 10 in canteens, the ABVP has promised to spend 50 per cent of the union's budget on women and social justice-related activities, along with a special attention on promoting sports and installing sanitary pad vending machines in college campuses.

After the AAP came to power in Delhi in February 2015, its student's wing had unsuccessfully contested the DUSU polls.

This time, it has promised installation of CCTV cameras, setting up of police booths in the campus, ending the "culture of hooliganism" and opposition to "commercialization of education".