New Delhi, Sept. 5: Delhi University today elected an Independent to head its students’ union for the first time in 18 years, ending the dominance of the student wings of the Congress and the BJP — at least officially.

Manoj Chaudhary, the Independent candidate, snuffed out Left hopes of a victory by beating Bajinder Singh of the CPI-backed All India Students Federation to the president’s post by the narrow margin of 11 votes.

Although the BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad nominally supported Chaudhary’s candidature over the past two days, the new DU Students’ Union (Dusu) boss is at present suggesting that he has no plans to join the ABVP.

The presidential candidates of both the ABVP and the Congress-supported National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) were disqualified for violating Supreme Court guidelines for student polls.

Two other candidates each from the NSUI — for the posts of vice-president and joint secretary — and the ABVP — for secretary and joint secretary — had also been disqualified, opening up opportunities for others.

With neither of these two student groups in the fray for the post, Anupriya Yadav of the Samajwadi Chhatra Sabha — the student body of the Samajwadi Party — was elected joint secretary.

This is the first time the Chhatra Sabha has won a post on the four-member Dusu panel.

Kriti Wadhera of the ABVP won the post of vice-president, and Arshdeep Kaur of the NSUI is the new secretary.