Following two defeats in a row, the Congress party’s teachers unit, Indian National Teachers Congress will not field any presidential candidate in the Delhi University Teachers Association (DUTA) elections this year.
“We have decided not to field any presidential candidate. The decision has been taken by the INTEC members keeping in mind our poor performance in the last year’s election,” said Ajay Maken.
“We, however, will focus on getting a majority in the Executive Committee and work for the cause of teachers in DU,” he added.
In 2015,the Left-affiliated Democratic Teachers’ Front (DTF) candidate Nandita Narain won the election bagging 2,390 out of total 6,068 votes polled followed by NDTF candidate VS Negi who got 2,165 votes. INTEC candidate Sanjay Kumar got only 536 votes.
The election for the office of president and 15 members of executive committee for 2017-2019 will be conducted on August 31. The DUTA president is elected for a single two-year term.
“By not fielding any candidate for the top post Congress-backed INTEC has already accepted their defeat. It clearly shows that they don’t have teachers support at the campus,” said AK Bhagi, NDTF president and an assistant professor at Dyal Singh College.
INTEC president Ashwini Shankar, however, denied their claims and said the decision had been taken to avoid electoral division. “By not fielding any presidential candidate we have not accepted any defeat. The decision has been taken in a bid to avoid electoral division. The opposition will +soon realise our motive behind the move,” he said.
“We will support whosoever will get elected and work for the regularisation of ad hoc-teachers, promotion and pension of permanent teachers among other issues,” said Surendra Kumar, General Secretary INTEC and a candidate for DUTA’s Executive Committee.
