Panjab University student body poll: Scoring big in small depts fuelled Anurag Dalal’s victory
Though Dalal remained in the lead through counting and secured a total of 3,433 votes, Prince Chaudhary of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) covered up lost ground when the ballots of bigger departments were opened, taking his vote tally to 3,130
National Students’ Union of India (NSUI) rebel candidate Anurag Dalal won the Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC) elections with a razor thin margin of just 303 votes. But his lead emerged not from a decisive win in big departments, normally regarded as kingmakers, but from small victories in various varsity departments.
Though Dalal remained in the lead through counting and secured a total of 3,433 votes, Prince Chaudhary of Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS) covered up lost ground when the ballots of bigger departments were opened, taking his vote tally to 3,130.
These three bigger departments — University Institute of Engineering and Technology (UIET), University Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) and department of laws — account for 35% of the total 15,854 votes at PU and past winners have always had a good success rate in these departments.
However, in Dalal’s case, what worked for him was not losing to Prince by a big margin from these departments and securing a lead in multiple smaller departments. Dalal especially trounced Prince in the sciences departments.
In his own chemistry department, Dalal got 234 votes against 59 of Prince. This was his biggest victory against Prince. In physics department, Dalal secured 145 votes and Prince bagged 60. Dalal also did well in languages with 79 votes against 21 for Prince in English and 28 votes against 6 for Prince in Hindi department.
The political science department also followed the trend, where Dalal polled 69 votes while Prince was able to secure only 11.
Prince got a lead in UIET with 464 votes against 300 votes to Dalal. From Prince’s own department--UILS-- Dalal still managed 426 votes against former’s 556. Even in the department of laws, Dalal was able to bag 158 votes against 165 for Prince, where the latter was expected to lead.
However, in the fourth biggest department — chemical engineering — Dalal got 176 votes against 126 for Prince.
Data suggests cross voting
The polling data also highlights cross-voting in the elections. For the vice-president’s seat, Archit Garg of NSUI secured 3,631 total votes whereas NSUI’s presidential candidate Rahul Nain was able to get only 501 votes which implies that many in Archit’s camp voted for another candidate.
Similarly, joint secretary candidate of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) Jasvinder Rana polled 3,489 votes, whereas, ABVP presidential candidate Arpita Malik got only 1,114.
Speaking about this, Students for Society (SFS) president Sandeep, whose party did not contest this time, said, “The bigger parties have turned to the smaller parties, trading votes for a different candidate on a particular post despite fielding a candidate from their own party for the same post. This is what student politics has been reduced to and ultimately it will be students who suffer.”
Law depts’ strength was deciding factor last year
Last year NSUI’s Jatinder Singh was able to beat Divyansh Thakur of CYSS because of a commanding lead in both the three-year and five-year law departments. Singh got a total of 476 votes in UILS against Thakur who scored 199 votes, while in department of laws Singh scored 150 votes against Thakur who bagged 104 votes.