Chandigarh: Legal eagles soar as kingmakers in PU campus president race
The law students of Panjab University, Chandigarh, are likely to decide PU president elections with 19% total votes and 50% total presidential candidates
Holding 19.2% of the total 15,854 votes, law students are in a powerful position to influence the outcome of the Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) elections this year.
Boasting a combined strength of 3,050 votes, 1,950 of these eligible voters are students of University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS), while another 1,100 are from the department of laws.
With four of the eight presidential candidates also coming from the faculty of laws, these 3,050 voters could well be the kingmakers.
Rahul Nain of National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) and Mukul Chauhan, who is fighting independently, are both enrolled in the department of laws, while Arpita Malik of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Prince Chaudhary of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) are from UILS.
The law students could sway the numbers even in the case of the prized secretary and joint secretary posts, where again two of their peers are in the fray.
UILS student Vineet Yadav, contesting from the Indian National Students Organization (INSO), is vying for the secretary’s chair, while ABVP’s Jasvinder Rana, a student of department of laws, is running for the joint secretary’s seat.
Some of the other candidates, who are currently enrolled in other courses, are also banking on their law background to pull votes: such as Archit Garg of NSUI, contesting for the vice-president’s post, who has previously studied from UILS and is now pursuing a course from the human rights and duties department.
Speaking about the influential role of the law faculties, Garg said, “Law students are more aware of their rights and take the student elections seriously. After 2019, the seats in law courses have increased and they have some genuine concerns. Last year, there were no placements at all at UILS. They have appreciated how we have formed a constitution for the student council to make it more than just a pressure group and we will count on their support.”
Last year’s victor also won in law battleground
Last year, when Jatinder Singh of NSUI had won the presidential election, he was able to beat his closest competitor Divyansh Thakur of CYSS in both these departments.
Singh got a total of 476 votes in UILS against Thakur who stopped far behind at 199, while from the department of laws, Singh polled 150 votes against Thakur’s 104.
Overall, Jatinder got a lead of 303 votes just from the law faculty, propelling him to the ultimate victory by a narrow margin of 603 votes
The trend was witnessed for the other posts as well, where candidates had obtained their leads from the law departments.
Speaking about how parties tap the law departments’ influence, former ABVP president Rajat Puri said, “We don’t treat law as a singular department. There are two law departments in PU and we target their voter base separately. Law students are more politically aware and active during campaigning. Thus, for them, the profile of the candidate matters. Our candidate, Arpita, has been actively involved in student activism and even participated in the department activities like moot courts. Therefore, the candidate’s personality and groundwork throughout the year will matter at the end.”
UIET : The biggest dept with just one president hopeful
University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET) alone accounts for 15.8% votes, with 2,518 eligible voters. Yet, interestingly, only one student from the engineering institute, Tarun Sidhu of Student Organisation of India (SOI) party, is in the presidential race.
Even for the other three posts, no student from UIET has joined the fight.
As per a UIET professor, students of the institute tend to favour candidates from their department. However, with not much choice this year, their support could tip the balance.
Last year, presidential runner-up Divyansh Thakur had got 320 votes from UIET as compared to Jatinder’s 276, resulting in the nail-biting finish.
At 368, ABVP’s Rakesh Deswal had the highest votes from here and Prateek Kumar of SFS, a UIET student, secured 298 votes from UEIT, while his overall figure of 621 votes was much lesser than the other three.
Due to the dismal number of candidates from UIET this time, campaigning on the south campus has also been a low-key affair as compared to the last year.
Meanwhile, law departments, combined with UIET and chemical engineering department, account for 40% of the total vote share in the PUCSC elections, giving their voters an edge over those from smaller departments in deciding the winners.