BHUBANESWAR: On hold since 2018, college union elections in the state will finally be held next year onwards. This was informed by Law minister Prithiviraj Harichandan on Monday.
Students’ union elections in universities and colleges are generally held before Durga Puja vacations. Since the new government took charge in the state just two months back, there isn’t enough time to prepare for the college elections this year, Harichandan told mediapersons after an event in Jajpur.
“Preparations for the college elections next year will begin this year itself. The government has already taken a decision on this and the elections will be held on campuses next year,” he said.
The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), BJP’s students wing, which had already started preparations for the campus polls after the new government came to power, welcomed the Law minister’s announcement. State general secretary Arijeet Pattanaik said ABVP has been demanding students’ union elections for the last six years and has also filed a PIL in the Orissa High Court.
“We have been demanding inclusion of campus polls in the common academic calendar of every academic session. If the elections are held, ABVP will win with a majority,” Pattanaik said.
However, Biju Chhatra Janata Dal (BCJD), the BJD students wing leader Tanmay Swain said although ABVP had earlier announced that it is prepared to face the campus polls this year, the elections were deliberately postponed by the BJP government owing to the popularity of Naveen Patnaik among the students.
“In the campus polls held so far, the fight has always been between BCJD and NSUI. Neither has ABVP won in any major campuses nor are they prepared with candidates to fight the polls even now. Hence, they postponed it as losing campus polls would have been a loss of face for them,” he said.
State NSUI president Udit Narayan Pradhan could not be contacted.
Currently, all the campuses have student committees and a majority of them are headed by BCJD. Elections have not been held since 2018 when the state was hit by cyclone Titli and the following year, the then BJD government called it off citing violence on campuses. The campuses were closed down for Covid-19 for the next two years and subsequently, polls were not notified in academic calendars.