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PU poll trend spotting
The frenzy surrounding Punjab University student elections finally culminated on Wednesday. Somewhere between the hustle-bustle of slogans, campaigns and the roar of jeeps, HT City spotted 13 top trends at Panjab University campus student elections 2013.
1. Creating history: It’s for the first time in the history of Panjab University campus student elections that a national party emerged the winner. While NSUI (National Students’ Union of India) started creating ripples just a year ago, they won the student elections in 2013.
2. Girls contested for major posts: Contrary to the trend till the previous years, PU elections this time saw some girl candidates — Navjot Kaur for president, Abha Sharma for general secretary, Akansha Sood, Disha Arora, Vidhi Bhukra for vice-president — come to the fore.
3. Swanky cars ruled, again: How can ‘Punjabiyaan di taur’ be complete without flaunting the BMWs, Audis, Hummers, Mercedes and Porsches of the world? Like always, super-duper expensive cars ruled on campus!
4. Girls campaigning on wheels: Girl power ruled this time! Girls on campus ditched their unsafe two-wheelers and took to swanky jeeps and SUVs to show their support.
5. Free ‘msgs’ all the way: Phone applications that provide free messaging facility proved to be a boon for student parties. While Whatsapp ruled the roost, other applications too were utilised to the fullest to spread different parties’
messages.
6. YouTube shift: They may be active on phone, but most parties this year decided to ditch social networking sites Facebook and Twitter for promotion. Instead, they turned to YouTube. Special songs and videos, they believe, strike a chord with voters.
7. Open house remained dismissed: All parties stood for one common goal — re-launching the open house at Panjab University. The authorities though dismissed any possibility of its revival. Open house was discontinued in 2010.
8. Ignoring the vice-chancellor: Students are known for not heeding teachers’ suggestions, aren’t they? The same surfaced when PU vice-chancellor Arun Kumar Grover suggested candidates to make use of PU’s free community radio station for campaigning. Student leaders, however, preferred using private FM radio channels of the city. The university also invited applications from student organisations to record a 15-minute message on the radio. Not a single party made use of it.
9. One party, ‘N’ number of leaders: Each party had various posts for its leaders; something that we hadn’t come across till last year. From president to party in-charge, chairman to campus president — various posts were made up by each party to keep the party united and the increase its strength.
10. Fashionable love for the party: Girls or boys — everyone paid attention towards flaunting their party love in style. While girls wrote party name on their nails and arms and legs, boys live up to their patent style of being spotted in kurta pajamas.
11. Girl campaigners remained in majority: Since two-thirds of Panjab University’s strength is of girls, the fairer sex emerged as the main campaigners on campus.
12. National parties came to the fore: Gone are the days when only student parties such as SOPU and PUSU were seen locking horns. This year, national parties such as NSUI, ABVP and INSO were actively involved too.
13. Party hoppin’: Various ‘disgruntled’ leaders left their parties and ended up joining rival parties due to internal rifts. This led to a major shift in votes at the eleventh hour.
