PU council poll: Chandigarh NSUI president calls candidate selection a ‘Tughlaqi farmaan’, quits

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 28

In a dramatic turn of events, the city NSUI’s recently appointed president Sikander Boora resigned today during an event held to announce the candidates for the Panjab University Campus Student Council elections to be held on September 5. He alleged that the decision on picking candidates was a “Tughlaqi farmaan” as the the latter were decided by the party high command and the local cadre was not roped in for discussion regarding the same.

After the Chandigarh Congress president HS Lucky announced that Rahul Nain from Department of Laws would be the presidential candidate and Archit Garg would contest the post of vice-president, Boora resigned immediately during the press conference held in Congress Bhawan, Sector 35.

Boora was nominated the Chandigarh NSUI president two weeks ago replacing councillor Sachin Galav, who is contesting the Youth Congress elections. Boora, a student of Women Studies in PU, has never fought elections himself but actively worked in poll campaigns for NSUI candidates, including Jatinder Singh, who was elected council president last year.

“The party would have decided on someone who had a history of working for student welfare. Till yesterday, there were a lot of names from the campus NSUI who have tirelessly worked for the betterment of the party. But the party finalised those candidates who were not involved at ground zero on the campus. As Chandigarh NSUI unit president, I do not agree with this decision. We were not even asked about this,” said Boora.

Reacting to Boora’s resignation, city Congress president HS Lucky said it was just an emotional outburst by Boora. “We are sure that we will be able to win him back after discussions with him,” Lucky said. When asked about his next course of action, Boora said he would hold deliberations with his supporters and other members of the organisation.

“The presidential candidate joined the organisation last year. He, along with other students, quit the BJP to join the NSUI,” said a Boora supporter.

Sources said around five candidates were being considered from the campus, but Rahul Nain was picked after intervention of a senior Congress leader from Punjab.