In a surprise victory, members of Adivasi Chatra Sangh (ACS) won four seats out of the five in the first student union election conducted by Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee University (DSPMU). According to the election result released by the university on Wednesday, the youth wing of Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) – Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) which emerged as the biggest students’ union group in the Ranchi University Student Union (RUSU) election 2018-19 was just able to bag one seat here.
“The historic win in the first DSPMU poll – 2018-19 has shown that tribal will not tolerate the dominance of a particular group. The elected members of ACS will collectively work for the welfare of the students here taking up the issues ranging from teachers crisis to availability of basic amenities on the campus,” said State Convener of ACS, Sanjay Mahli.
On the other hand, State Convener of ABVP admitted that they had failed to convince the voters here despite being one of the oldest students’ union groups. “This failure has taught us a lesson. The supporters of ACS enthusiastically participated in the election but unfortunately despite establishing direct communication with the voters, we were unable to get the desired results,” said Atal Pandey of ABVP.
The election was held for five posts – president, vice-president, general secretary, joint secretary cum treasurer and deputy secretary. Amandeep Munda of ACS got 802 votes and won the seat of president whereas Sujata Bakhla of ACS was elected as vice-president. Bakhla got 839 votes. Showcasing the mettle in the students’ union poll, other members of ACS, Ritesh Oraon and Sujit Kumar Munda won for the post of joint secretary and deputy secretary respectively. The joint secretary got 625 votes whereas the deputy secretary got 1237 votes. ABVP candidate, Bhagwat Kumar who has been elected for the post of secretary got 634 votes.
The newly constituted – DSPMU registered 32 per cent voters’ turnout in the first students’ union poll. Out of 7,980 registered voters, 2, 351 electors cast their ballot in a box at the 29 polling stations demarcated on the university’s premises. Following the recommendations of Lyngdoh Committee, the student union poll 2018-19 was conducted through ‘Direct Method’ here for electing the office-bearers for the academic session 2018-19. As many as 29 contestants’ contested the students’ union election. In accordance to the university records, six candidates each contested the election for the posts of president and vice-president while for the posts of general secretary, joint secretary cum treasurer and deputy secretary, eight, six and three candidates respectively rubbed their shoulders. Meanwhile, a minor incident of clash between the supporters of ACS and ABVP was witnessed in the late evening; however, the district administration in support with the university personnel handled the conflict tactfully.
“The vote counting began from10:30 AM onwards at the specified polling booths demarcated within the varsity campus. The vote counting procedure was carried out in the hassle free environment following all necessary guidelines but in the evening during the celebration, the supporters of ACS opposed the decision of ABVP members of hoisting party’s flag inside the campus. Soon, things were brought under control,” said an official of DSPMU. Further, as per the communiqué released by the varsity, the submission, intimation of complete list of elected members to the office of Dean Student Welfare (DSW) will be over today followed by the oath taking ceremony programme of the newly appointed office-bearers for all five posts. The oath taking ceremony will be organised in the presence of faculty members, students and non-teaching staffs at Open Air Theatre, DSPMU from 2 PM onwards.
