Chandigarh: 9 candidates in the fray for the top post
Chandigarh: The final phase of the Punjab University Campus Students Council elections has begun. The final list of nominations has been released by the authorities. Nine candidates are in the fray for the post of president, five for the post of vice-president, four for the post of secretary and six for the post of joint secretary. Now the candidates and their party leaders are running around to form alliances to woo students and politicians. This time the contest for the post of president seems to be triangular. AAP’s student wing Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) has fielded Prince Chaudhary, a first year LLM student. The party has formed a well-planned alliance with the Indian National Students Organisation (INSO), University Students Organisation (USO) and Himachal Pradesh Students Union (HPSU).
The Congress’ NSUI has fielded Rahul Nain from the Law Department for the top post, while the ABVP has fielded its woman candidate Arpita Malik from UILS for the post of president. To counter these, the NSUI has specifically fielded research scholar Anurag Dalal for the post of president. Anurag had served in the NSUI for eight years, after which he quit the party after NSUI Chandigarh president Sikander Boora resigned on Wednesday. The Students’ Organisation of Punjab University (Sopu), which is trying to make a comeback on the campus, has contested the election for the secretary’s post with Jashanpreet in alliance with the rebel faction of Sikander Poora, who has fielded its candidate Anurag Dalal for the post of president.
The Himachal Students’ Union (HIMSU) has extended unconditional support to the rebel faction. NSUI changes its plan With the NSUI announcing its candidates for the posts of joint secretary and secretary today, the Congress’ student wing has become the second party after the ABVP to contest all four seats on the campus. On Wednesday, the NSUI had announced its candidates for the posts of president and vice-president. Rahul Rain from the law department was named as the president’s candidate, while Archit Garg from the human rights and duties department was the vice-president’s candidate. Today, the party announced Paras Parashar from the physics department for the post of secretary and Yash Kapasiya from the social work department for the post of joint secretary.
2 women for top post
This time two women candidates are in the fray for the top post in the university. Arpita Malik, a final year student of UILS, is contesting from ABVP, while Sara Sharma, a student of the history department, is a candidate of PSU Lalkaar. Till date, only once has a woman become president in PUCSC, in 2018-2019, when Kanupriya of SFS was elected to the seat.
SOI announces candidate
The Shiromani Akali Dal’s student wing, Students Organisation of India (SOI), today announced Tarun Sidhu as its presidential candidate. Sidhu had quit CYSS a few days ago and joined SOI. A few weeks ago, the party had suffered a setback when its veteran student leader quit the party and joined SOPU.
