Poll preparations pick pace at PU

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 16

Every year campaigning picks up at the PU with declaration of party panels at the Students Centre where a number of leaders are handed over similar designations like president, party president, campus president and chairman.

No role has been defined with any designation. However, they all have been allowed to release party posters on campus with their pictures.

Many a times, they belong to different factions and designations are offered to placate them. In some cases, leaders joining from other parties are offered designations as trophies. These leaders are also not eligible to contest or cast their votes most of the times.

The actual candidates for contesting elections are declared much later. The National Students Union of India (NSUI) has appointed Pankaj Jakhar as president, Gurpreet Hundal as party president, Vijayjeet Hayer as campus president and Gurkirat Pannu as chairman.

It is not clear what role each one has to play and what is the hierarchy.

On similar lines, the Students Organisation of India (SOI) has declared Mehnazpreet Singh Chahal and Chetan Chaudhary as party president and chairman, respectively.

The Panjab University Students Union (PUSU), one of the oldest parties on campus, has declared Jaspreet Brar as president, Jastinder Bhangu as campus president, Babbal Chaudhary as chairman, Rahul Pandey as north campus in-charge, and Bhagat Singh as campus chairman.

The Indian Students Association (ISA) has also distributed the party president and chairman posts among two people, but they say president is above chairman.

NSUI leader Manoj Lubana doesn’t find anything wrong with the practice.

“We have been designating people similarly for a long time. The party needs faces so that students can approach them in need. They may or may not be students of any camp, but can render their help to voters. We can’t declare contesting candidates at this stage as opponents could get FIRs lodged against them,” he said.

“All have similar roles by and large. But, the president is higher in the hierarchy than the chairman. We have two presidents and two chairmans. There is one campus in-charge too, who is above chairmans,” said Kuldeep Singh, PUSU leader.

The Students for Society (SFS), which is a leftist party, doesn’t resort to this practice.

“These parties do not have any ideology. The distribution of similar posts is an attempt to gather workforce and placate the factions,” said Harman Deep, SFS leader.