By Navdeep Sandhu, IANS
Chandigarh : The much-delayed election to the Panjab University students union has finally been announced for Nov 5, but thanks to new guidelines top leaders from the main groups have been rendered “ineligible”.
Criteria like a candidate not having any police case against him, having a minimum lecture attendance of 75 percent, not having a record of reappearance in any examination have forced top student leaders out of the fray in the Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) polls.
The university’s governing body gave a green signal Tuesday evening for the poll date, though earlier the election used to be held at the beginning of the academic session in August itself.
Elections to affiliated colleges in Chandigarh will also be held on the same date.
This year’s poll announcement got delayed following a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a local NGO, Burning Brains Society, seeking that the poll be held as per the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations. The directions of the Punjab and Haryana High Court in this regard forced the university to hold the polls under the new guidelines.
The contesting candidates also have to keep an eye on the expenditure – permitted at just Rs.5,000 per candidate.
Student organisations have just about five days, including a weekend when the campus is closed, to campaign with fresh faces.
The main players include the Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) and Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) but this time a new outfit – Indian National Students Organisation (INSO) – is making a strong claim. PUSU and INSO are in alliance for this poll.
While SOPU has brought its seniormost member Uday Bhan Singh, a botany student, into the battlefield, INSO-PUSU’s presidential candidate is Vivek Bhanot from the geology department. INSO’s Deepak Hooda has been named for the post of general secretary.
“Both INSO and PUSU are progressive parties. We want to take the university forward by bringing the right person to the fore,” avers Vikas Rathee, INSO head.
Both Bhanot and Singh will face the limelight for the first time. The parties therefore seem to banking on the party name and past achievements.
SOPU was planning to field Harpreet Singh Multani and PUSU Abhishek Puri for the president’s post but they were rendered ineligible by the strict guidelines.
“The enthusiasm to vote has already sunk among the students. During our victorious past year we had an impressive list of feats. The students should definitely judge the SOPU team on that,” asserts Dalvir Singh Goldy, outgoing PUCSC president and SOPU leader.
Despite making up 70 percent of the campus electorate, no woman candidate has ever come to the forefront or been president of the students’ council in the history of the university.
Goldy says girls here are less confident. “However, abiding by SOPU tradition, we have a woman candidate for the vice president’s seat this time as well,” Goldy added.
“It is difficult for us to campaign well under the present circumstances. The candidates are new and the days are numbered. We are also bound to follow a ‘no poster, no banner’ strategy,” says Puri, PUSU head.
In recent years, bloody clashes have taken place between supporters of SOPU and PUSU leading to police cases against both sides. Elections to the students’ council were banned after 1985 following terrorism in Punjab and Chandigarh. They were allowed again only in 1997.
Tight security measures are already in place for the Nov 5 poll.