PU polls: Eyeing comeback, PUSU joins presidential post race, SOPU yet to decide on seat

PUSU and SOPU have cleared their intentions to contest the Panjab University’s student council election this year. PUSU has announced that they will run for the presidential post independently

Looking for a chance to make a comeback, the student wings – Panjab University Students Union (PUSU) and Students Organisation of Panjab University (SOPU) – have cleared their intentions to contest the Panjab University’s student council election this year.

While PUSU has announced that they will run for the presidential post independently, SOPU is yet to decide on which seat they will contest. Once prominent student wings, PUSU and SOPU had fought to bounce back in recent years as mainstream political outfits entered the arena of student politics. (HT Photo)

While PUSU has announced that they will run for the presidential post independently, SOPU is yet to decide on which seat they will contest. Once prominent student wings, PUSU and SOPU had fought to bounce back in recent years as mainstream political outfits entered the arena of student politics.

PUSU’s announcement comes a day after a number of students joined the Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Samiti (CYSS), the student wing of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), including a former PUSU member. The CYSS is also set to make its debut in this year’s election of the Panjab University Campus Students Council (PUCSC).

The student body made the announcement to set aside the rumours that PUSU may align with some other student body in the upcoming polls. PUSU’s president Ravinder Natheha said, “In this year’s election, we will contest for the presidential post independently. Rumours are being spread that PUSU is aligning with some other student bodies. We are a non-political student union and are capable of winning the election.”

PUSU had an alliance with the Students Organisation of India (SOI) in the 2019 polls. Notably, PUSU had won all four posts in 2016 after which they could not win the presidential post so far.

The PUCSC elections haven’t been conducted since the term of the outgoing council ended on May 31, 2020, as the university had switched to virtual classrooms amid the pandemic. However, the date for the elections hasn’t been decided yet and student bodies have been demanding its announcement.

SOPU hopes for better luck

Meanwhile, SOPU has also started making its presence felt on the campus and its leaders say that they will revive the party. SOPU has not been able to win an election independently in recent years. It was in 2012 that the SOPU alliance swept the PUCSC elections. “We will revive SOPU on the campus and will contest on a single post this year to set an example that the student union can also work for the welfare of the students. However, we have not decided on which post our candidate will contest,” said SOPU president Balraj Singh.

Established in 1977, PUSU contested its first election in 1978, while SOPU came into existence in 1997, contesting the polls in the same year.