The Hindu : New Delhi News : Bungling alleged in JNU hostel polls

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 01, 2005

New Delhi

New Delhi

Bungling alleged in JNU hostel polls

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: With election fever just about gripping the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus, Friday saw the Mahi-Mandvi hostel elections being held amid fierce protests, with some hostel residents demanding fresh polls after the nomination of some candidates was struck down as invalid.

While the students accused the hostel administration of playing politics by deliberately cancelling the nomination of only those candidates belonging to the "right" wing, the University administration said the students had no evidence to support their suspicion.

According to supporters of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the trouble began right from the beginning of the election process earlier this month.

"We received a shock when the nomination of some of our candidates was cancelled, with a notice from the warden pointing out that no final year students would be allowed to contest as their term would end in march while the union seats would be valid till next September," said a student.

A complaint was then made by the students to the Dean of Students Welfare and the warden, who removed the clause and announced that fresh nominations would be filed. According to the ABVP, although their candidate filed three nominations, two were struck down on grounds of being invalid. While the ABVP admits that the forms did have mistakes, it insists that a third nomination had also been filed, which the warden denies.

"We cannot prove that we filed the nomination because we are not provided any acknowledgement receipt. How is that our fault? We are only protesting for justice and fairplay. The cancellation of the nomination has only meant that the fight stays with the Left, and none of our candidates are allowed to contest," said another ABVP supporter. Barely two hours before the elections were to begin at 6 p.m., the Vice-Chancellor's office saw ABVP supporters make a last minute attempt for fresh elections, but without success.

The meeting saw the Vice-Chancellor, B.B. Bhattacharya, hear out the students in the presence of the Dean and decide against the cancellation. "The students did say that they felt the election chief was trying to lean with a certain political outfit. But then, they did not have any evidence to support such a suspicion and so we decided to not disrupt the process," said Mr. Bhattacharya.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

New Delhi