Student leaders rue wasted labour after cancellation of Students' Union election in their campuses

  • | Sunday | 7th October, 2018

Had I contested and won the campus election, it would have put me on course to a political career. They spent days working out strategies to win the union election, hoping it would translate into something bigger in life and politics. There was no reason for the cancellation,” he alleged.Panda had hoped that student politics and a plum union post would help him bag a more serious political role in future. This campus election was a grand opportunity for students like me to shine,” he further said.Sambalpur University union aspirants had left no stone unturned to woo the young voters. This time, I wanted to contest for the post of union president, but again the polls have been cancelled.

They spent days working out strategies to win the union election, hoping it would translate into something bigger in life and politics. But the universities cancelling the elections one after the other has come as a blow to that dream, finds outAspirants hoping to bag a seat in Utkal University’s students’ union were in a state of disbelieve when the authorities decided to cancel the polls for the second consecutive year. They had slogged for a year, interacted with hundreds of students and canvassed for votes, only to find it all being rendered useless.“Last year, I had filed nomination for the post of assistant general-secretary. The election was cancelled following a clash between two groups. This time, I wanted to contest for the post of union president, but again the polls have been cancelled. At least we should be grateful that the university cancelled the polls before the filing of nomination,” said Tapas Kumar Barik, a PG student of anthropology.Barik said he had been building up his voter base for the past one year. “I even had a strategy in place to win the election. My campaign was going well and I had my friends’ support. Everything has now gone to waste,” he rued. Nitish Kumar Bhola, a second-year PG student at Utkal, criticized the authorities for ‘snatching students’ democratic right to vote’.“Along with my colleagues in the organization, I held programmes and academic meets to get closer to the students. I tried to help them as much as I could,” Bhola explained. What hurts him most is that the Utkal authorities took the decision despite there being no major clash on the campus. “Things were peaceful. I don’t know why the PG Council decided to scrap the election,” he complained.The feeling of wasted effort echoed in Sambalpur University, which has also scrapped the polls for this year. Soumaya Sankalp Panda, who was supposed to contest the post of president from Biju Chhatra Janata Dal, said the university cancelled the election saying the situation on campus was ‘not favourable’ for polls. “But the situation was normal. There was no reason for the cancellation,” he alleged.Panda had hoped that student politics and a plum union post would help him bag a more serious political role in future. “I want to join politics. Had I contested and won the campus election, it would have put me on course to a political career. I would have got the opportunity to test my mettle,” he reasoned. His rival, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad’s Sapan Pandit, agreed. “I have been working for the election since the day I took admission in the university. I was general secretary in Bhadrak College when I was studying there,” Pandit said.Pandit, in fact, was hoping that the campus polls would prepare him for a bigger role in the 2019 assembly and Lok Sabha elections in the state. “Had I contested and won the election, I would have been recognised by my organization. I would have got a good position. This campus election was a grand opportunity for students like me to shine,” he further said.Sambalpur University union aspirants had left no stone unturned to woo the young voters. From organizing Nuakhai feasts to spending money on campaigning, a lot was at stake for the students.The aspirants’ complaint about their efforts being wasted, however, has also come in for criticism, with several former student leaders lamenting that the elections has become only about money. “We contested elections to improve the institute. We raised genuine issues, but now the election is all about money and muscle power,” said Subhendu Mohanty, who was president of Ravenshaw College union in 1993.Political parties, too, were not so closely involved in campus politics, Mohanty added. “Studious youngsters would contest the polls earlier. Today, they prefer to stay out of the elections due to the involvement of political parties,” he further said.In Ravenshaw, many feel that institutions have also played a role in letting things slide. “The Lyngdoh Commission clearly says no candidate can spend more than Rs 5,000 on election expenses. But students blatantly violate this rule. They organize massive feasts in hostels and distribute gifts to lure voters. The authorities have turned a blind eye,” said retired professor S K Rath.(With Subrat Mohanty in Sambalpur and Binita Jaiswal in Cuttack

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