Hyderabad: The Congress affiliated National Students Union of India’s (NSU) University of Hyderabad (UoH) unit has prevented the joining of an ex-ABVP member into its fold. NSUI students from the campus wrote a letter to the Congress leadership in Delhi after expressing umbrage at letting bearing opposite ideological values join the unit.
The ABVP is the student wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), and has often been accused of being violent especially towards women and minorities when it comes to protests over ideological issues. The person in question whose joining was opposed by NSUI members of UoH is Akash Bhati, who along with his others with him was also reportedly promised the position of president and cultural secretary in the upcoming UoH Students Union elections.
This comes at a time when the NSUI unit of the University of Hyderabad has been facing heat from the Telangana state NSUI unit and the Congress leadership as well after it took a stand against the state government over the Kancha Gachibowli land issue. NSUI members from UoH stood with other student groups and protested against the occupation of the land when the state began to raze it down earlier this year with bulldozers.
The matter reached the Supreme Court, which stayed it and even asked the Congress-led Telangana government to replant the land it mowed down. Hearing the case, CJI BR Gavai remarked, “I am myself an advocate for sustainable development, but that doesn’t mean that overnight you should employ 30 bulldozers and clear all the jungle,” reported Bar and Bench.
“Ever since the Kancha Gachibowli land row, we have had issues with the state NSUI and Congress leadership. Right now, after we blocked the entry of the ex-ABVP member, we have been left on our own to fight the coming elections. He was being inducted as he contested as an ABVP rebel and lost the president vote by 13 votes. They are looking at it electorally but ideologically how can he be taken in the NSUI?” questioned an NSUI member from UoH.
According to information accessed by Siasat.com, the UoH NSUI in an email dated 13 September 2025 wrote to the NSUI national president against inducting the ex-RSS affiliate candidate, warning that posed a “direct threat to the ideology, values, and mission of NSUI.” However, in a WhatsApp message sent by Telangana NSUI president Yadavalli Venkataswamy later, Bhatti’s induction was announced after a reported approval from the national president Varun Chaudhary and national general secretary Ahraz Mulla.
The move to induct the ex-ABVP member was scuttled later after the UoH NSUI unit escalated the matter to AICC in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan. “In retaliation the Telangana state president and national president have cut-off all funding to. The NSUI-UoH unit, which had its first win in the 2024 Students Union election after a long time, is now running its campaign entirely on crowdfunding. We are being financially strangled by our own leadership,” added the NSUI UoH member.
However, state NSUI Telangana leaders denied that they were trying to promote the ex-ABVP members in any way. “Bhati is an ex-ABVP member and was not given a ticket last time as he was getting stronger. The RSS student body never lets anyone go forward individually. Since he was anti-ABVP, we considered it as he had asked to join the NSUI. Finally in April when we met the NSUI members in UoH and things were okay,” explained a member from the state body.
The Telangana NSUI leader told Siasat.com added that since the Kancha Gachibowli also spoilt the image of the Congress in Telangana and UoH. “Bhati has 100 people working for him and can easily gather about 300 votes on his own. He had asked for the post of president, as he always won the post in the last election. He even said that if we will lose he will himself quit. So what was there for us to lose? We asked NSUI members in UoH to adjust this once, and to compromise over other posts that we can win,” he added.
