The roads of Delhi University’s North Campus are no longer buried under heaps of political flyers, but the 2025 Students’ Union election still carries the same tether to national politics.

For the two big players – the Congress-backed National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) – money and muscle remain the backbone of campaigning. Long Thar caravans, free thalis, and celebrity endorsements dominated the ground, while social media reels, often set to Haryanvi tracks, have taken a central role under stricter restrictions on physical campaigning.

Two days ago, a reel with Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt went viral with over 7 million views. In it, Dutt called ABVP’s presidential candidate Aryan Maan his nephew (bhatija) and asked Delhi University students to vote heavily for the ABVP candidates. 

A post shared by Aryan Maan (@aryanmaan)

In the middle of this reel-heavy campaign, Miranda House came up with a Manifesto Reading event, giving 10 minutes to all student groups for speaking and interaction. However, ABVP members faced a slightly unusual protest. Amid chants of “ABVP go back!”, a student sitting in the last row took off her shoe and showed it to members of the RSS-affiliated group.

A post shared by स्तुति (@tathaistu)

Aryan Maan had faced similar resistance before, when he stood on a table in the canteen and faced slogans against him and his party.

A post shared by DU Girls (@delhi_university.girls)

Equally bizarre has been the use of Doraemon and Mickey Mouse costumes, being worn by men, that stood outside colleges with names and numbers of candidates. Whether this is to memeify the elections or just to make students care (for fun), DU elections in 2025 are “same, same, but different”.

Top artistes, politicians rally behind ABVP........

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