PU student poll on Sept 5

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 21

The Chandigarh Administration has approved September 5 as the date for the Panjab University Campus Student Council (PUCSC) elections, sources said.

The day, Thursday, will be a holiday for the university as students will cast vote for four posts of president, vice-president, secretary and joint secretary. September 6 (Friday) and September 7 (Saturday) will also be observed as holidays. It is a common practice to conduct the PU elections just before holidays to provide time for the winning fervour to cool-off.

According to PU sources, the authorities had proposed that the elections be conducted on any one of the three dates – August 30, September 5 and September 13. “We are yet to receive official confirmation from the UT Administration regarding the final date, but most likely, it will be announced by the end of this week. We are taking all necessary measures to prepare for the polls and will hold more meetings with the police and students to ensure a peaceful conduct of the student council elections,” said the Dean, Students Welfare, Prof Amit Chauhan.

The student parties are already gearing up for the elections. However, the usual election fervour is absent from the campus due to the recent holidays as well as counselling sessions going on for fresh admissions to various departments. The university authorities had held a meeting recently with the student leaders and police officials, including the SSP, regarding security measures before the elections.

As of now, no major political party has announced its candidates. “This is something which will be done in the end. Because of factionalism and the provisions of the Lyngdoh Committee, most of the parties are finding it difficult to decide a name,” said a campus student leader. It is interesting to note that even the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), which is relatively fresh as it was formed just before the 2022 elections only, is reeling under factionalism. “It is no more about loyalty to the party. Every leader wants to contest,” said a CYSS leader.

Last year, the elections to the PUCSC were held on September 6 and the results declared the same day. National Students Union of India (NSUI) candidate Jatinder Singh, who had quit the ABVP to join the union merely seven days before the polls, had won the president’s post by defeating CYSS candidate Divyansh Thakur by a margin of 603 votes. The vice-president’s post was bagged by Ranmeekjot Kaur of Sath by securing 4,084 votes. Deepak Goyat of the Indian National Student Organisation (INSO), the student wing of Haryana’s Jannayak Janta Party (JJP), was elected secretary with 4,431 votes and Gourav Chahal of Panjab University Helping Hands (PUHH), which had an alliance with the ABVP, was elected joint secretary.

ABVP had released its manifesto

Only the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), a student wing of the BJP, has declared its manifesto. It has promised to introduce cyclical reservation for permanent representation of women in the PUCSC if elected.