Chandigarh: NSUI rebels proved their mettle

Chandigarh: Corruption allegations, apathy of senior party leaders or non-fulfillment of some past promises perhaps did not hurt Congress student wing NSUI as much as the party rebels did in the PUCSC elections today. The rebel group Democratic Students Front (DSF), led by former city NSUI president Sikander Bora, surprised everyone by winning the top post of the council. Some of Bora’s friends, who had earlier helped NSUI win the PUCSC elections and are still with the party, silently supported him. “It is not fair to crown Bora alone. He got tremendous support from his friends who hold important posts in the state and national bodies of NSUI,” said an NSUI source.

The victory became even sweeter for the rebels as the NSUI candidate for the council president’s post came sixth. Miffed with the party’s choice for the president’s post, Bora verbally resigned and walked out of a press conference in the presence of city Congress president HS Lucky. Bura had made his displeasure public by calling the selection of candidates a ‘Tughlaqi Farman’. Bura claimed that the importance of students is clearly visible in the results. He said, ‘I stand by my words. This result is a befitting reply to the Tughlaqi Farman by the students.’ Bura said, ‘I had returned to the campus on the day of resignation. More than 300 students talked to me.

We have always stood with the interests of the students and PUCSC elections cannot be fought on the basis of national or international interests. The support I received on the day of resignation from NSUI gave me the courage to form a new group. Within a few hours, we decided to form DSF. Our main agenda was the welfare of students.’ However, Bura said that he will remain with the Indian National Congress. For this election, DSF had formed an alliance with Students’ Organisation of Punjab University (SOPU) and Himachal Students Union (HIMSU).