PU student council elections likely to be held before Sept 10

Taking time to ensure full preparedness, varsity authorities are considering conducting this year’s Panjab University Campus Students’ Council (PUCSC) elections before September 10 — most likely on September 4 — confirmed highly placed sources.

A highly anticipated annual feature, the polls draw interest from various regional political parties. In the past few years though, the election fervour, which sweeps the campus, has come down amid restrictions imposed by the authorities and strictness by the Chandigarh Police to avoid any untoward incident.

“We are in the process, the elections will be conducted in September and to be precise before September 10,” confirmed the source.

Traditionally, the elections are conducted near the weekend to ensure time for the fervor to settle down.

“The UT Administration has already announced a restricted holiday for Onam & Milad-un-Nabi or Id-e-Milad on September 5, while the university calendar has only one scheduled holiday in September (Agarsain Jayanti on September 29). Given the timeline, the officials have agreed for September 4 for conducting the elections. However, to follow the process, the university administration will submit the schedule with the UT Administration and the Chandigarh Police to have appropriate arrangements. They (university authorities) will be proposing three dates following the past practices, focusing majorly on September 4,” added the official.

Meanwhile, Dean Student Welfare, Amit Chauhan, and DSW (Women), Namita Gupta today met Chandigarh DGP Sagar Preet Hooda, who recently joined the force.

“During the interaction, the DGP assured that the university administration would receive full support from the UT Police during the upcoming student council elections. Both DSWs also held a constructive discussion with SSP Chandigarh, Kanwardeep Kaur, at her office regarding preparations and coordination for the elections,” confirmed an varsity official statement .

The code of conduct is likely to be imposed in the second last week of August.

In a first, the 2024 elections saw independent candidate Anurag Dalal of Democratic Students’ Front (DSF) bag the top post by a margin of 303 votes. Dalal defeated Prince Chaudhary of the Aam Aadmi Party student wing, Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti.

A high-voltage affair

This year’s elections are set to a high voltage affair given the recent incidents on campus— especially the row over newly admitted students being asked to submit an affidavit confirming that they would not participate in protests or sit-ins without written permission from the authorities concerned on the campus. The murder of a 22-year-old university student at a concert held at Panjab University’s South Campus in March this year had also rocked the campus.

In both cases, political groups came together in a show of strength without the usual motive of taking credit for seeking votes.