Prashant Bhushan, Yogendra Yadav take dig at AAP over defeat in DUSU polls

New Delhi: Swaraj Abhiyan leaders Yogendra Yadav and Prashant Bhushan on Saturday took a jibe at the AAP over its defeat in the Delhi University Students Polls (DUSU), saying the party met this fate as it had used "dirty tricks of old politics."

Bhushan said AAP resorted to "money and muscle power" which led to their defeat in the polls while Yadav said the party lost as it failed to present itself as a "genuine" alternative."

"DUSU lesson: Na Maya mili na Ram. This is what happens if new politics tries to follow dirty tricks of old politics," Yadav tweeted. "DUSU lesson for AAP: When people vote for you for alternative politics and you descend to money and muscle power, you fall between 2 stools & lose," Bhushan tweeted.

BJP's student wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad swept the DUSU elections by bagging all four positions while the AAP-led Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) which made its debut at the campus polls this year finished at third position.

With Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal personally backing the candidates, the battle had become a prestige issue for the party. "In DUSU polls, it was quite a naked display of the old formula of dirty politics. Money, caste calculations, state power was used. Old players can use it, but not the new player, who only has the honesty card to play.

"Had AAP contested on the ground of probity, honest politics, it may not have won the election, but would have offered an alternative politics," he said. Yadav also blamed the ABVP and Congress backed National Students Union of India (NSUI) for the "brazen" use of money power in the students polls.

The former AAP leaders were expelled for "anti-party activities" in April this year after they questioned its leadership.