ABVP, SFI fight it out as JU students vote after three years

The students' union elections in the Jadavpur University, held after a gap of three years, went

on peacefully on Wednesday, with RSS-affiliated ABVP and CPI (M)-backed SFI claiming they received a good response from the

students. A university official said no untoward incident was

reported in the elections in both Arts and Engineering faculties, that began at 10 am and ended at 7 pm.

"The university authority sincerely expresses its thanks and gratitude to all sections of the university --

teachers, students, researchers, officers and employees -- for rendering all necessary support without which the elections

could not have been completed smoothly," Vice Chancellor Suranjan Das said in a statement.

SFI's Jadavpur University unit leader Ushashi Pal said a large number of students voted enthusiastically.

"We were cautious of not falling into ABVP's trap and asked our activists and supporters to be careful so that the

election process was not disrupted," Pal said. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) had put

up its candidates for the first time in the students' union polls of JU, known as a hotbed of Left-wing politics.

"We were careful so that the SFI or other Left unions could not instigate any trouble," ABVP's JU unit leader

Shyamasree Karmakar said. She said barring a few stray incidents in Arts

faculty, where intimidatory tactics were attempted, the polls were by and large peaceful.

The elections were conducted for central panels of the two faculties.

Each central panel has posts of a chairperson, a general secretary and two assistant general secretaries.

The ABVP and the SFI contested 40 posts each in the two faculties, including those of class representatives.

The AISA and the Trinamool Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) were also in the fray.

The results of the students' union elections will be declared on Thursday.

Students' union polls in state universities had been put on hold for nearly three years since January 2017.

The state government had imposed a blanket ban on students' union elections following violence on campuses

across West Bengal ahead of the 2016 Assembly elections. However, after representations from various students'

bodies and feedback from higher educational institutes, the state government had announced that elections to four

universities, including Jadavpur, Presidency and Rabindra Bharati, would be held.

JU students had been agitating for long demanding that students' union elections be held on time.