Deepankar Sharda
Chandigarh, September 15
Which department the next Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) president will come from? This is a question for all student political outfits on the campus, and many have started working on picking their candidates.
The University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) has always been a hot pick for the political outfits, given the large number of its students.
Student Organisation of India (SOI) candidate Chetan Chaudhary, who won the council elections in 2019, was a former student of the UIET. As he did not get admission to the MTech course, he shifted to the Urdu department. The second most sought-after wing is the University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), which has nearly 1,475 students, as per the 2019 polling record.
“The student strength in all departments is unlikely to see a major change. Since the elections were not held for two years, it will be tough for parties to fight elections on the basis of work they have done. This time, the elections are likely to be fought on the ‘face value’ and the department having a good student strength will surely be a hotspot for all political outfits,” said a senior functionary of the university.
“All parties have started working on it. These departments cannot be ignored. Even the hostellers, who have a major vote share, are enrolled in these departments. Targeting the departments is always helpful in attracting hostellers towards a party outfit,” said Angad Veer Brar, who is associated with a student political group. “In the past, we have seen presidents getting elected from departments having a student strength below 500 (such as zoology, UIAMS and others). However, the major departments have never been ignored,” said Pritam, another student.
Regional influence
Like previous years, the upcoming elections are likely to witness regional influence on all political groups. The political groups represented by students of the neighbouring states play an important role in wooing voters.
2019 election data
16,138 students enrolled
128 department representatives elected
167 polling booths
